Our Life
by TheWickedQuill
Summary: DISCONTINUED! MA. AU. Humor fic with multiple pairings. Max finds herself working for Alec in a world that finally accepts Trasngenics as members of society. What could possibly pass the time in the lives of our favorite X5s and friends? MA, SBiggs
1. Chapter 1

**OUR LIFE**

Title: Our Life - response to Shana's DA fanfic challenge  
Author: IzaAcklesfan izabelevans & jracklesfan77 aka Shana  
Rating: R (for language)  
Show: DA - (AU)  
Genre: Humour  
Pairing: MA  
Type: WIP

**Summary:** In an alternate universe where Manticore released all the transgenics into the world, fully granted citizenship and rights like any American. No one hates or fears them.

They have all moved on to bigger and better things, applying their training, education and abilities in the outside world.

**Challenge Must-Haves:**  
1. Alec must hold a prominent job  
2. Biggs and Zack are in the Army – but they have to start way at the bottom  
3. Mole must present a TV show – where he gets his material from is up to you.  
4. Eyes Only must play an idiot part. No bashing, just make his character not quite so bright…or his actions. No name calling; just plain, silly fun.  
5. There must be a transgenic Christmas Dinner or other holiday gathering and everyone's invited.

Any other characters and side stories are fair game! Enjoy!

**A/N¹:** We've borrowed the character 'Axel' from izabelevans' fic 'Everyone's Got Secrets'. Hope you all enjoy him as much as we do!

**A/N²: **A big thanks to Mrs. for ideas and input. You're a great sounding board!

**A/N³: **Pollo Loco never happened. Everything and everyone is fair game as far as we're concerned!

**Well, here's our take on what happened...**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 1**

Alec bent forward over his desk resting his head in his hands. The tension of the past few days was beginning to wear on his nerves and he couldn't deny it any longer. He needed help.

The Human Resources department was being reorganized. For that matter so were Finance, Strategy, Development and Patents. With the recent merger and acquisition, JRA Media Corporation had doubled in size. This called for changes in all the internal divisions and the paperwork was endless. It left HR with no time to find him the assistant he needed.

His head ached. _I hate resumes. I hate interviews. I hate secretaries!_ Frustrated that the only choice left was to conduct the interviews himself, he sighed. It would make the need for an assistant even greater now that he would have less time to get any actual work done.

Reaching over, he dialled the extension he needed: Reception.

"Good morning."

"'Morning Nita. Would you have someone send up the PA candidate resumes from HR? And please, don't put any calls through. I'm officially a ghost today."

"Certainly, Mr. McDowell."

Alec hung up the phone and quickly lost himself in the documents piled in front of him.

* * *

The jangling of the telephone broke his concentration. _Good for nothing receptionists! No calls means No. Calls!_ But he hit speaker and spoke calmly. 

"Yes, Nita?"

"Mr. McDowell, sir, I'm sorry to interrupt. But there is a Mr. Jonas Cale here to see you?"

Alec jumped from his seat and ran a shaky hand through his hair. _Shit. My __11 o'clock_ _! I'm totally unprepared for this!_

"Send him up."

Cale Industries held contracts for police and military hoverdrones and an assortment of other such advanced surveillance technology. JRA Media developed the hardware that enabled the hoverdrones to function properly. Today's meeting was meant to resolve some issues with faulty programming and to discuss the possibility of upgrading the existing hardware to include special access rights for elite personnel. JRA's well recognized and highly sought after speciality: smart card access.

Rummaging through his filing cabinet, Alec quickly withdrew the plans and charts he had put together the night before. _I need painkillers. God, my head!_ He'd been working around the clock to prepare everything and he sincerely hoped Cale would agree to the proposal.

A knock on the door brought him out of his daze. "Come in."

The sight that greeted him took his breath away. A beautiful, slim brunette with long, wavy black hair and honey-brown doe-eyes set against smooth, caramel skin stepped aside and ushered in a slightly portly man with a receding hairline. Alec couldn't keep his eyes off the girl and he grinned, noticing the way her full lips curved when she spoke.

"Mr. Cale here to see you, Mr. McDowell. If there's anything else you need…?"

"Coffee?" he turned briefly to Jonas Cale who nodded in response. "Coffee would be wonderful, Miss…?" he left the question hanging as he sought her name, extending his hand in greeting.

"Guevara. Maxine Guevara." She reached out and firmly shook it.

She left the room silently, returning minutes later with a tray of coffee, tea and biscuits. Gently placing them on the table, she turned to leave.

"Miss Guevara?" Alec called out to her, admiring her figure from behind. _Ah, that's a fine piece of ass!_

"Sir?"

"I'd like a word with you after this meeting, if you can spare the time?" he couldn't for the life of him understand why he was doing this. But the urge was too great.

"I'm sure Reception can spare me for a little while." She smiled and left.

* * *

Max stalked down the hallway, biting the inside of her cheek in frustration. She hated her job and the first day wasn't even over yet! 

_What a pig!_ she thought in revulsion, remembering the appreciative looks Mr. McDowell had sent her way, the obvious admiration of her womanly assets. _All men are pigs. Women are more than just bodies! And THIS woman is much, much more! I'd love to kick his sorry ass…all the way to __Kentucky_

Max hated having to be sweet and polite. It was so totally against her nature to be submissive. And calling anyone "Sir" made her stomach convulse. It brought back too many bad memories.

She returned to Reception and set about finishing up her tasks. Her deft fingers filed, photocopied and collated piles of papers. Between the incessant ring of the telephone and non-stop chatter of her co-workers she was developing a splitting headache. _Why did I ever let __Cindy_ _talk me into getting a job in a corporate setting?_ She was kicking herself mentally for giving in. Working at Jam Pony had been fun, and she'd been able to manipulate her boss, Normal , into letting her do things she knew no one else would ever let her get away with. _Money. It all boils down to cold, hard cash. _

* * *

Taking her lunch, she made her way to the roof. The company had one thing down pat. They created a comfortable working environment and offered the best possible amenities to their employees. The rooftop garden was one such perk. Small tables with comfortable chairs were placed along the edge of the walls surrounding the roof. A small fountain spouted clear water in the center of the pavilion. Potted plants and flowers lined the enclosure and gave the space a soft, homey feel. 

Max took a seat and began to eat. She was interrupted by the sound of a throat clearing and the awareness of a heady scent of irresistible, spicy aftershave. She whirled around, startled.

"Mr. McDowell! What a pleasant surprise!" she smiled a fake smile and resisted the urge to scowl.

"Please, call me Alec." he said. "May I join you?"

She waved to the empty seat across from her and eyed her companion. He was good looking. _Liar. He's breathtaking!_ She mentally shook herself. _Looks aren't everything. Get a grip, girl!_ He had the sculpted face of Adonis. Soft, dark blonde hair, hazel eyes, straight nose, long neck…and she couldn't help but wonder what was beneath the tailored, designer suit. He was gorgeous.

"So, Miss Guevara, I haven't seen you here before."

"God, no one calls me that. It's Max. And yeah, first day." She sighed wearily. She was bored. The job didn't challenge her. She finished her tasks in record time and having nothing to do was grating on her nerves.

He raised an eyebrow at the obvious displeasure in her tone. She offered an explanation.

"I hate being confined indoors. My previous job gave me lots more freedom. I hate being bored."

Alec chuckled heartily. "Where were you working before?"

"Jam Pony Messenger Service."

He pulled back slightly in surprise. "You were a messenger?"

"Yeah. I like action. I hate sitting all the time. Hate monotony. I like challenges, the constant change of pace. The whole meet and greet thing just doesn't do it for me, y'know? I wasn't made to sit pretty. I'm a kick-ass kinda girl. This job sucks." She laughed suddenly and raised her hand to her mouth. _Ooops! Did I just tell the Vice President of the corporation that I hate my job? _"Um, I didn't say that! Traitorous, evil tongue."

Alec laughed and smirked. "My lips are sealed. And," He paused, sitting forward and looking directly into her eyes, "I can relate. Hmm…let's see. Can you type?"

Max eyed him suspiciously. Why did he care if she could type or not? But she decided to play along, see where things went.

"Nope."

"Hmmm. Have you ever dealt with suppliers and contractors?"

"Uh uh."

"I see. Um, any sales experience?"

"Not really."

"Have you ever taken minutes at a meeting?"

"No."

"Do you think you could?"

"What?" She was twisting the hem of her shirt. The direction this conversation had taken astonished her. One minute she was complaining about her job the next it sounded like he was going to offer her another one. "Um, sure I could. I mean, I'm a quick study."

_Maybe for a human_ he thought to himself. Being Manticore bred he knew his enhanced abilities allowed him to learn new skills in no time at all. He'd give her a couple weeks to get settled. IF she agreed to take the job. _You can't seriously be considering employing a secretary with no skills whatsoever. What's with you man? What is it about her?_ He had no idea why he was so drawn to Max. It was more than her looks. She radiated an indefinable magnetism, and it took his breath away.

"Would you like to work for me? I'm in desperate need of a personal assistant. Someone who's up for a challenge, who likes to dig in, take initiative, roll with the punches as they come. I need someone with attitude, yet who knows when to pull back and let things slide. You think you could do that? We can deal with the administrative bits along the way. That is, if you're game?"

Max inhaled sharply. She'd known Alec for all of what, half an hour? But the longer she was with him, the more she liked him. Her first impression was crumbling. The guy exuded power and success. And stepping up the ladder was definitely something she couldn't pass up. It was just an added bonus that she found him attractive.

"I think I'd like that." Max smiled broadly and stretched out a hand to shake on it. He grasped her hand firmly with both his own and returned the smile. _His smile could melt butter._

Alec walked over to the wall and hopped on, swinging his legs like a little boy. "So, Max, tell me about yourself?"

"As much as I'd like to indulge you, Mr. McDowell," she started slowly but he interrupted her before she could finish.

"Please, it's Alec. I work better in an informal setting."

"Fine. Alec it is. Unfortunately, I still have work to do. My lunch hour's over. Back to reception and the daily drudge." She reluctantly rose to leave. Alec grinned at her.

"There IS work to do…but the telephones can be answered by any number of incompetents and YOU are needed elsewhere. You, my dear, will make your way to your new office. I'll square it with Personnel and Security. We'll have our first meeting in…30 minutes?" he cocked his head as he waited for her reply. _The girl has spunk._ He liked that. He needed someone lively and entertaining in his life and he had the feeling he wouldn't be disappointed.

"30 minutes works for me. See ya, Alec." She sauced his name slightly. Whatever this was, it was comfortable. _I think I'm gonna like it here. _

* * *

It was close to the end of the day and Alec hadn't seen Max in hours. He'd sent her to the research room to pull some files on one of the company's competitors. _How long does it take to get a little info?_ He was getting more and more irritated by the minute. _Maybe this was a mistake…_

Max walked into his office suddenly, arms laden with files. Spreading them out on his desk she came around to stand by his side.

"I got the information you wanted. I separated everything into sections, from stocks to income to employee turnover, acquisitions and bids and finally technological development. I hope you don't mind that I went ahead and compared notes to our company's holdings and advances. It turned up some enlightening revelations."

Shaking his head in wonder, he looked at the girl standing beside him. For someone with no training, she'd exceeded his expectations. "What did you discover?"

"I'm sorry to have to say this, but it looks as if we have an inside leak. A mole. There are too many similarities in our developments and the bids on stocks come way too close to each other in timing.

"As for the typing and filing you wanted done? Give me a few hours to figure it out. I'm sure I can have everything ready by lunch tomorrow."

The genuine smile that lit his face made her gasp. His eyes sparkled and she felt herself drawn to him. _Max, don't do this to yourself! Don't ruin your chance here. Keep telling yourself he's a pig. Keep him at a distance... _

"I think you've earned dinner. Care to join me?" he suggested. Alec wanted to know more about this girl. She seemed more competent than he'd given her credit for, more competent than made sense, given her lack of experience. In fact, he was slightly suspicious.

Without thinking, she accepted his invitation.

"I'll pick you up at 8. Dress casual." And with that he picked up his briefcase and left.

* * *

Max made her way down to the car park. She was tired. She shouldn't have accepted Alec's invitation to dinner. Mixing business with pleasure was bound to lead to a shitload of problems. _Dammit girl! You aren't thinking straight!_ But it was too late now to do anything but enjoy the evening ahead. 

She crossed the lot and approached her car. But the squeal of tires caused her to spin around quickly. At the far end of the car park she could see Alec. Her enhanced vision zoomed in on him and she saw him fumble with his keys, seemingly absorbed in thought. The car she'd heard just seconds before was hurtling toward him at breakneck speed. _Omigod. It's heading straight at Alec! _

Without concern for exposure, Max blurred to Alec's side, shoving him to the ground and rolling them both under the car and out the other side. She grabbed his hand and pulled him after her.

Bullets suddenly whizzed through the air, barely missing their targets and the two dashed to safety. Max hardly realized that Alec was blurring just as fast as she was. Alec on the other hand did. Something about the girl rushing along beside him made him frown. _How can she run so fast?_

As they approached the service elevator, the doors opened and a lone figure raised his weapon, aiming at Alec. Max took a quick look above, calculated the distance and flipping herself, she launched her legs into the air and tucked them tightly around a pipe. Gripping Alec's arms, she hauled him up and then swung down again. She dropped to a crouch, rolled and came up in front of their would-be assailant. Sweeping his legs out from beneath him, she pinned the man easily, removed his weapon and with a strong punch, sent him into oblivion.

Alec dropped silently to the ground and stared at her in wonder.

"Are you transgenic?" he asked in a quivering whisper.

Max shivered. _Oh shit. I've gotta get out of here!_

She made a mad dash for the exit, fully intending to put as much distance between herself and Alec as possible. Thoughts of Manticore, Lydecker and Psy-Ops plagued her mind with a ruthlessness that left her cold and vulnerable.

_How could I have been so stupid! _She kept repeating to herself. _You couldn't let him die, you couldn't let anything happen to him. _

TBC

Chapter 2


	2. Chapter 2

**  
Chapter 2**

Max hadn't managed to take three steps before she realized that Alec was keeping up with her. Surprised, she faltered in her steps and he reached out to grab her arm, steadying her. Realizing that with would-be assassins behind them, that this was not an appropriate place to have a designation exchange session, they kept running.

Following his lead, Max found herself running up several flights of stairs in a nearby building. They didn't stop until they were on the roof. Panting, slightly out of breath, they turned to look at each other.

"X5-494" Alec introduced himself.

"X5-452"

His eyebrows went up upon hearing her designation and she smirked.

"Yeah, yeah. One of _them_. I'll sign an autograph later. But for now, would you please explain to me why you were just almost killed?"

"I have no idea."

"Oh come on, Alec. Cocky, powerful guy like you has no enemies? I don't think so."

"Really. I have no idea. And believe it or not, some people think of me as charming not cocky. I happen to be very well liked despite the fact that I am superior in every way to pretty much everyone."

"That's not cocky?"

He shrugged. "It's true."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Back to the assassination.. It had to be some sort of government thing. Those guys were professionals. I'll call my brother, he's in the Army. Maybe he can help."

He rolled his eyes at her use of the word brother. He knew as well as she did that they didn't have 'brothers' or 'sisters' unless they were twinned, and it would just be a crime for them to have used her gorgeous DNA to produce a male. "I have a friend in the military too, that's a good idea, Max. See, I'm even good at hiring the right people." He winked at her as they pulled out their cell phones.

* * *

Zack felt his cell phone vibrate against his leg and he looked around to make sure nobody was watching. He ducked behind a tree and sat down to answer the call. He was currently in boot camp and cell phones were strictly prohibited, but he was no idiot. He had more military training that the guys running this place, but the government insisted that any transgenic wanting to serve their country be brought in at the bottom and earn their rank. Like he hadn't earned it with his 10 years of intensive torture, I mean training…Arrogant assholes. The European military had been more generous with their offers to the transgenics, but Zack had too many people he loved in the United States to even think about fighting on another side. So he swallowed his pride and went the American military route. Not that it was such a bad deal. They went on a 10k run every morning which Zack finished faster than anyone. He always was sitting patiently at the end of the course for the 'ordinary' soldiers to catch up. It usually pissed them off pretty good. Here he was, a good 6 years older than most of them and they couldn't even come close to keeping up with him. Not that they weren't in good shape, many of them were incredible athletes, they just lacked that Manticore advantage.

He flipped open the phone to answer the call not bothering to keep his voice low. He would know well in advance if anyone were approaching.

"Zack here."

"Hi." A breathy voice greeted him.

His heart stopped as he realized who it was. "Max? Are you okay?" A million scenarios ran through his mind of all of the possible things that could be wrong with her as he simultaneously ran through a dozen plans of the quickest method of getting to herconsequences be damned.

"I'm fine. I need some information."

"What kind of information?"

"I'm working for a fellow Manticore Alum and he just escaped an assassination attempt. It was a pretty professional job. But definitely not Manticore. We're thinking military. Do you think you could dig around a little?"

He sighed realizing she was fine for now, but working hard at finding someone else's trouble where she herself had none. "Max, it's not like I have security clearance or even computer access. I have no rank here. Shit, as we speak I am on a callisthenics drill to 'keep us in shape'. Last night I pulled clean-up duty in the mess hall. I'm a grunt here."

"Cut the crap Zack. You know that none of that matters. Don't have clearance? _ Get clearance._ No computer access, _ get access._ Or is all that 'ordinary' training making you soft?"

"Ohhh. That's original Max. Challenging my masculinity. Like I'm some kind of insecure ordinary. You spent too much time with that Lotus guy."

"LOGAN! You _ know_ his name is Logan! And just for the record, all male X5-'s are cocky bastards!"

"I'll give you the bastard part, but cocky? It's not cocky if it's true."

She could hear Zack smirking into the phone. "Are you gonna help me or not? Cause if not, I'm sure Zane would be more than happy to. In fact, I was trying to call him when I got you. Scrolling through my phone I stopped on 'Zack' when I meant to go one number further to get to 'Zane'."

He grunted and she knew she had him.

"Fine. I'll do it. We both know that if you call Zane that cocky son-of-a-bitch will hold it over my head forever like I couldn't help you."

"So let me get this straight, _ Zane_ is cocky, but you are just confident."

"Yeah."

"You're giving me a headache."

"You know what they say cures a headache." He said suggestively.

"For Christ's Sake" she started but was interrupted.

"Gotta go, Max. The kids are catching up with me." He hung up the phone and hid it away in his cargo pocket before resuming his run.

Max just stared at her phone in disbelief. "That asshole hung up on me!"

* * *

Biggs felt his phone vibrate against his leg and tried to ignore it. Of all the inopportune moments for this to happen…He made a silent vow to kill whoever it turned out to be on the other end of this phone. Not that there were all that many choices. Only about six people had this number.. If he had to guess he would say it was either Axel or Alec. If it was Axel he would be calling hoping to get Biggs caught with the contraband phone—he had been adamantly opposed to Biggs joining the Amry, especially with the raw deal the United States offered. And if it was Alec calling then it meant trouble. Trouble had a way of hunting Alec down like the animal that he was…

The phone vibrated again.

"Oh, I'm sorry Private, am I keeping you from something?" the officer said sarcastically.

"No Ma'am!" he barked keeping at attention and wishing that whoever was trying to call would take the hint that he was NOT able to answer at this moment. Here he was, in his commanding officer's office being reprimanded for not following procedures, and he was about to get caught with his contraband cell-phone.

"Well, why don't I get that for you." She said in a clipped tone as she unbuttoned the pocket button on his cargo pants and pulled out his phone. She looked at the display and said, "It says 'Ass-face'. So, you are getting a call from a person named 'ass-face' on a cell phone that you are prohibited to have, and I presume that you are going to tell me that 'Ass-face' is calling with some sort of emergency?"

"Yes ma'am!" he replied as he more vividly planned Alec's murder and mentally kicked himself for putting Alec's number in under the name "ass-face".

Smiling an evil smile, she answered the phone.

"This is Private Biggs' illegal cell-phone, can I help you?"

Alec blanched as he heard the commanding tone of what must be Biggs' commanding officer. "Uh, sorry. I think I have the wrong number."

"I don't think so. Your name was clearly displayed on the screen as the call came through. So, Mr. Ass-Face, is there a message that I can relay to Private Biggs for you? Unfortunately, he can't talk right now seeing as how he has about 4,000 potatoes to peel for tonight's meal."

"Excuse me, did you just call me 'Mr. Ass-face'?" Alec asked in disbelief.

"Is that not your name?" she said sounding innocent. Biggs fought not to roll his eyes.

"No, Ma'am it's not. And if you could tell Private Biggs that I was just calling to tell him that that shipment of gay-pornographic magazines that he ordered was on it's way and he should receive them by the end of the week." He smiled to himself as he imagined Biggs' plotting his murder and he closed the phone hanging it up and effectively ending the call.

He turned back to Max and caught part of her conversation.._"LOGAN! You know his name is Logan! And just for the record, all male X5-'s are cocky bastards!"_ He made a mental note to ask who Logan was later, and he chuckled that he wasn't the only proud member of his class that exuded the level of confidence worthy of their genetic make-up. He was pulled out of his musings as his phone rang.

He didn't recognize the number, but answered it anyway. "He-llo."

"You arrogant son-of-a-bitch! Is that your idea of a joke? Did you think that was funny? Do you have any idea how much crap I was in to begin with _ before_ your contribution? It's a good thing I don't need much sleep. That frigid bitch has me doing so much extra work I will never make it out of boot-camp."

"Who is this?" Alec asked managing a straight face.

"It's me fuck head." Biggs said with no small amount of irritation.

"I'm sorry, you must have the wrong number. My name is 'ass-face' not 'fuck head'." He giggled. Like a little girl, he giggled.

"Alec-"

"Oh, you do remember my name." he said sarcastically. "Where did you get another phone so quick?"

"Hey, I was trained to be prepared. It's not like I thought I would make it six weeks without being caught on the phone. I brought along a couple of back-ups."

"Nice. Listen, the reason I was calling.."

"Other than to get me into trouble and embarrass me? I mean, come on, gay-porn? That's not even imaginative."

"Right. Well, forgive me for being unoriginal, but I kinda almost got assassinated this morning and I was wondering…"

"What! 'Kinda' got assassinated? How do you kinda get assassinated? Wait, let me guess, you slept with some hot-to-trot ordinary woman who conveniently forgot to mention that she was married to a mob boss and he found out?"

"Like that would happen twice…No. I don't know who the hell it was, but it looked professional. I was hoping that you could look around a little."

"Because I'm not in enough trouble."

"You never shied away from trouble before."

"Dude! I'm this close to getting court-martialed as it is…"

"Fine, don't help me. Do you think they will let you have time off to come to my funeral? How does it work with the family leave for the transgenics? Do we have to share some human DNA, or will they just accept that feeling like family makes us family? Or what about the animal DNA. If we're considered family in a cat genome, will the military recognize the relationship?"

"You really are an ass-face. Now I remember the drunken night I put your number into my phone under that fitting moniker."

"So you'll do it?"

"Did you ever really doubt it?" Biggs asked seriously.

"No. Thanks Biggs. Stay out of trouble. Oh! By the way, was that commanding officer hot? She sounded hot."

"Keep it in your pants little brother. Did you not hear me call her a frigid bitch?"

"Dude, I can-" he interrupted himself as he realized that Max was off of her phone and paying full attention to him and his conversation now. Somehow he realized that it would not be in his best interest top finish that sentence. "Gotta go." He snapped his phone closed hanging up on Biggs.

"Any progress?" She asked him with thinly veiled irritation.

"Oh yeah. He's on it. How about you?"

"Yeah. He'll get back to me soon."

"Good. So, now what?"

"I have a friend here in town that has some pretty good contacts. We could head over there and see if he can dig up anything."

"Would this be the infamous Logan?"

"You were eavesdropping?"

"Max, you yelled the guys name out at the top of your lungs. Even an ordinary would've picked it up."

"Whatever. Yes. It's Logan."

"Boyfriend?"

"We're not like that."

"Good." He said not bothering to hide his interest.

"Good? Is that your idea of a pick-up line? You think pretty boys don't have to work that hard?"

"I've never had a problem." He smirked knowingly.

"Well, pretty boy, let me be the first to tell you that compared to other transgenics, you're not that pretty. And your cockiness is not that charming. I see how you manage to fleece ordinary women, but with X's, you would have to work a little harder."

"Not that pretty? Did you just say 'not that pretty'? Mark my words, little girl, one month of hanging around me and you'd be begging for it."

"Yeah, if I were _ in heat_, maybe. And even then I'm not so sure.." She smiled to herself as she turned and headed to the stairs. She was actually enjoying herself.

He stared after her in disbelief. "Where are you going?"

"To Logan's. Coming?"

"Yeah, but why take the ordinary way when you can fly?" he said as he took a running jump off of the roof and landed gracefully on the rooftop of the adjacent building.

She smiled appreciatively, before she laughed. He turned to make sure she was looking. He frowned. "What's so funny?"

"Logan's is this way." She said as she made a running dive for the next building landing on her hands and flipping in the air to her feet in a beautiful acrobatic display.

"I knew that." He said from two buildings away from her as he quickly tried to catch up with her.

TBC

Chapter 3


	3. Chapter 3

**  
Chapter 3**

Max turned the knob only to find the door locked. "What the hell?" she asked in irritation. The only time Logan ever locked his door was when he was out. _And he's never out. He's always at that damned computer._

"What's so surprising about a locked door? Most Ordinaries do that."

Max glared at Alec. "Whatever." She proceeded to pick the lock and the two of them stepped into the penthouse.

Alec whistled. "Nice digs. So this Logan guy, what does he do?"

"Cyber journalist."

"Underground rebel, huh? That wouldn't pay for all this." Alec spread his arms to indicate the lush carpet, fine art, antiques and fancy furnishings. "So what, he got a little something goin' on the side?"

"Family money. Would you just shut up already?"

"Jeez, Max. Just makin' conversation!"

"If I wanted conversation, I'd go find someone interesting to talk to."

"Nice way to talk to your boss. You lookin' to get fired on your first day?"

"I just saved your ass. The way I see, _ you_ owe _me_."

"Fine, fine. Be like that."

"Where the hell is he?" Max cursed under her breath as she stomped from room to room in search of Logan .

"Why does he have to be home? What, does the guy never leave the house?"

"Something like that." She muttered. Alec looked at her quizzically. "He's wheelchair-bound. And a bit of a computer freak."

"Ah." Alec paused next to Logan 's computer and picked up an envelope clearly marked 'Max'.

"Looks like he knew you'd be coming."

Max whirled around, and seeing the envelope in Alec's hand, glared at him before snatching it from him. She ripped it open and pulled out the note., not noticing the two bits of paper that fell when she unfolded it.

_Max, _

_Can you believe it! As Eyes Only's right-hand man, I was invited to be on "The Mole Show"! You know, the show where that transgenic lizard guy interviews famous people? Me! Famous! _

_Anyhow, they sent 2 extra tickets. Bring a friend with you. We're airing tonight at _ _9:00_ _. I'm so excited! Hope you'll come! _

_Yours Always, _

_Logan_

Alec bent to retrieve the tickets. " Logan works for Eyes Only? You sure have connections."

Without thinking, Max bit out. "He IS Eyes Only, you fool." Realizing her slip, she raised her hands to her mouth in an attempt to swallow her words.

"Eyes Only, huh. Wow. Now I'm impressed. The guy who interrupts all my favorite shows to spew shit about the indecency of the world is a personal friend of yours?"

He glanced over her shoulder noticing Logan 's closing remarks. Alec smirked at Max. "Yours Always? Are you sure you two aren't 'like that'?"

Max directed a punch at Alec, but he dodged it. "This better not become a habit, Max"

She looked at him in confusion.

"You. Hitting me. If you wanna touch me, all you gotta do is ask." His trademark smirk firmly in place, Alec folded his arms across his chest and looked at the sputtering girl before him.

"Why the hell am I trying to help you?" Max's eyes gleamed in fury as she eyed the cocky X5. _He's infuriating! ARGH! I don't know if I wanna strangle him or straddle him! _Max shook the unwanted sexually inclined thoughts._ He's going to drive me crazy! _

"I knew it, Max. You can't resist me."

"Get over yourself. You're not god's gift to women." _But I can sure understand why he'd think he is. The man oozes sex appeal. Damn, he's HOT._

"So, Maxie, we going to this show or what?"

"Don't call me Maxie! And yeah, whatever. Let's go."

* * *

They left the apartment in a rush. It was almost 9 and they still had to get to the other side of town to make it in time. They raced back to JRA and piled into Alec's car.

Never one to be put off by a warning, Alec ventured. "What's wrong with calling you 'Maxie'?"

Max had the feeling she wouldn't be rid of him if she didn't explain. With a sigh of resignation she replied. "It's a special nickname. Only my siblings use it. So don't."

"Wouldn't wanna be treated like a brother, Max. Won't happen again." He flinched as her fist connected with his arm once more. "Ouch! Watch the arm will ya? If you have to hit me, try a different area!"

Max's eyes glinted evilly as she looked from his eyes down to his crotch and back again.

"Okay, okay! Keep to the arm! Valuable merchandise down below!"

Max looked at Alec, his face scrunched at the thought of any harm coming to the family jewels. When her eyes met his, they both burst out laughing.

He grinned at her. "I knew when I hired you that it would be fun. Admit it, spending time with me isn't all that bad."

"Not all bad." She conceded.

* * *

They arrived at the studio with only minutes to spare. Racing to the door, Max and Alec tried to push their way through the crowd.

"We're here at the request of Logan Cale, tonight's guest star." Max explained to the burly doorman. He looked her up and down in blatant disbelief.

"No way was someone this hot, with someone that _not._" He said, shaking his head.

"Hey Max, you never told me the guy's name was Cale!" Alec blurted out.

"Dumbass! Shut _up_!" she hissed, hoping the doorman hadn't heard Alec's remark. Unfortunately, he had.

"Seems to me you two punks don't even _know_ Mr. Cale. I'd suggest you leave. Now." The words were not quite so subtle, and the hand reaching inside his jacket even less so.

The doorman eyed her sceptically. Raking his eyes over the pair, he took in their dishevelled appearances, ripped and dirty clothing. Max realized how they must have looked and she stalled.

"We've got tickets!" she said quickly. Turning frantically to Alec she stuck her hand in his pocket, searching blindly for the tickets he'd picked up off Logan 's floor earlier.

"Um, Max, I don't have them. I gave them to you."

"No, you had them."

"Yeah, and I gave them to _you_!"

"Oh for god's sake, Alec! How could you screw up something so simple!"

"Oh, so now I'm a screw-up, Max-ie?" he drew out the name to annoy her with very successful results.

"That's IT!" she yelled as she punched him in the stomach. The doorman just stared in growing disbelief at the two beautiful people hitting each other. A small crowd had gathered to watch the spectacle.

* * *

Inside, Logan Cale was having his makeup done. A lady with big hair and very red cheeks was applying foundation and blusher to his face. _That tickles._ He thought with a smile. _I could get used to having people pamper me, now that I'm famous!_

The commotion behind the door to his left had him curious. "Marianne, your name _is _Marianne, right honey? What's happening out there? Is it fans? Do I have fans?" his question came out in an excited rush.

"Tone it down sugar, you'll smear your makeup!" came the reply as the large woman continued with her tasks. Lipstick came next.

"Oh, but do I have fans? Are they here to see me? Let me see!" Logan almost sprang out of his wheelchair, hastily rolling toward the door. Marianne smeared the lipstick clear across his face in a jagged line at his sudden movement. Logan looked like a cross between a carnival clown and Frankenstein. But he was in too mad of a rush to worry about that.

Stepping outside, he took in the sight of Max fighting with a _handsome_ young man. They were arguing quite loudly.

"If you hadn't left the tickets at Logan 's we'd be inside watching the damn show!" Max screamed as her fist connected with Alec's jaw.

"Dammit, Max! That HURT! And I didn't LEAVE the damn tickets! YOU did!" Slam! He punched her in the gut.

"Like I'd be that stupid!" came her angry retort, as she kicked him, his head snapping back at the force of the blow.

"Obviously you ARE! What the hell is wrong with you, anyway? So we forgot the tickets! Does that automatically give you the green light to kick the shit outta me! Fuck Max, that HURTS! Is it that time of the month?

"OOOOOOH, now you're asking for it, pretty boy!" she lashed out with a roundhouse kick, the two totally oblivious to the crowd around them, egging them on and cheering wildly.

Suddenly a loud, high-pitched shriek filled the air an the two transgenics pulled away from each other in shock, both breathing hard.

"Enough! Stop that, Max! If your little friend wants to see me so much, all you had to do was ask!" Turning to Alec, Logan put out his hand to shake it.

"Heeeell no, Man! I'm with _her_!" Alec pointed quickly at Max and sidestepped the older man who was practically drooling with happiness.

"God, Max! Is that HIM? It's a good thing the two of you aren't 'like that'. I woulda had you committed!"

Max cuffed him upside the head but couldn't resist the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. Logan looked ridiculous. And the flashing cameras in the background capturing his face for posterity only made her want to laugh. She was a hairsbreadth away from losing it when Alec let out a snigger. That as all it took for the two X5s to collapse on the floor, laughing their asses off.

The doorman had a look of utter confusion mixed with intense mirth on his face.

"Mr. Cale, sir, do you know these people?" he asked, trying to keep a straight face.

"_She's_ Max." Logan indicated toward the beautiful girl he was secretly in love with. "And he's, I don't know who but if she's with him, let him in." Logan turned in a huff and muttered to no one in particular. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get my makeup done." And with that he rolled back inside.

Max and Alec got to their feet and were ushered into the studio. As they brushed themselves off and took their seats, Alec leaned toward her, his lips close to her ear. "Damn that guy is weird."

Max couldn't reply. Nothing she could say would be able to blot out the memory of Logan 's face. And she thoroughly agreed with Alec's assessment. Logan _was_ weird.

TBC

Chapter 4


	4. Chapter 4

**  
Chapter 4**

"Front Row? Wow, Eyes Only is really well connected." Alec said sarcastically.

"Would you shut the hell up! That is supposed to be a secret!" Max kicked herself mentally for letting Logan's secret slip.

"Oh come on, Max. Like I wouldn't have put two and two together once I saw the guy in person? Do you really think that him putting on a pair of glasses is such a great disguise? I mean really, who does he think he is? Clark Kent trying to hide that he's Superman?" Alec's eyes lit up. "Oh! That's probably it. Little Logie Cale was probably one of those comic book geeks as a kid and he dreamed of one day growing up to be a super hero and he stole this lame-assed glasses/no glasses disguise from Superman!"

"Do you always talk this much?" Max asked, exasperated.

"Yes."

"Could you NOT?"

"No. Look little miss, I spent twenty years holding my tongue and keeping my mouth shut, and that was plenty. So, now, if I have something I feel like saying, I say it." He leaned in closer to her so that she could feel his breath on her cheek. "And by the way, your outfit is giving me a lot of ideas about what I could say next." He teased her.

Max elbowed him in the gut. Hard. The air whooshed out of him in a rush. She smiled sweetly as she shoved him back over into his own seat. "Shh. It's starting."

"What the hell are we even doing here anyway?" he said as he regained his ability to breathe.

"We are waiting to talk to Logan."

"Because super spy is going to be able to tell me who is trying to kill me?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Exactly!" She gave him an amusingly serious looks and turned her attention back to the happenings on the stage in front of them.

"Yeah right. Look, if you wanted to come to the Mole show all you had to do was say so. I could've got us even better seats." He said.

"What are you blathering on about?" she held up her hand to silence him as he started to answer. She'd heard enough out of him.. "And besides, what seat is better than a front row seat?"

A few seconds later, the lights dimmed and the theme music started to play.

A deep voice boomed ominously over the loudspeakers. "Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves…You are in the company of greatness…Put your hands together for MOLE!"

Applause lights lit up all over the studio and the crowd obliged with a thunderous round of applause for the Lizard man. Mole entered the stage from the center, his signature Cigar (unlit) gripped tightly in his mouth. He raised both hands in acknowledgement of the greeting and the crowd hushed. As usual, he started with his favorite opener.

"Do we have any transgenics in the audience today?" Nobody moved. Max fought the urge to squirm in her seat. She didn't want to draw any attention to herself. She knew that the transgenics were accepted members of society, but ten years of looking over your shoulder was a hard habit to shake.

Sensing her discomfort, Alec smiled and stood.

"Hey Mole! Buddy, what's up?"

Mole shielded his eyes to block the spotlight as he peered into the crowd at the man who had just stood. "Alec?"

"In the flesh. And I brought a friend. X5-452." Before she could protest, Alec grabbed Max firmly by the forearm and hauled her up beside him.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Get on up here!" the crowd clapped and cheered as they watched a smiling Alec half drag/ half carry Max to the stage.

"What the hell are you doing?" She hissed at him through clenched teeth.

"Watch and learn, Maxie."

By this time, they had reached the stage. A petite, dog-faced young woman gestured for them to sit on the plush chairs on the stage. Mole continued to stand, addressing the crowd.

"Any other Transgenics in the audience? No? Well, let me tell you that you are in for a real treat today. Alec McDowell, X5-494, is the gentleman sitting up here with me and let me tell you, he is one of the reasons that you damn ordinaries are alive and kicking today!" he strode over to the interview area and sat down across from Alec and Max.

By this point, Logan had wheeled himself to just off the right side of the stage. He anticipated being called up for his interview at any second. He frowned when he saw Max and the good-looking man from earlier sitting on stage with Mole. What the hell was going on? And why did he have his arm around Max? She was his girlfriend? Didn't that idiot know that? Not that he was worried. He knew Max would never give up on their love. They were meant for each other.

"So, Alec. Tell the crowd a little about your work for the United States."

"Well, Mole, I really don't know where to start." Alec said feigning modesty. "But even better than my old war stories, is Maxie here." He pulled her closer, embracing her even more tightly as he felt her tense as if she were about to bolt. "Maxie's an '09 escapee."

The crowd gasped.

"An '09er! Perfect! I've been trying to get one of you on my show for months! Damn Alec! You really are the man!"

"Don't encourage him!" Max said through gritted teeth as she tried to subtly disengage herself from Alec's firm grip that was holding her in place.

Mole turned to the audience "We have to take a short commercial break. We'll be right back with '09 escapee Max, X5-452, to those of you just joining us!" the crowd applauded as the station switched over to commercials.

Max was very pale. She had just been outed on National TV! Max had spent 10 years looking over her shoulder, running for her life and trying to keep off the Manticore radar. And now, 3 years down the line, she still had a hard time coming to terms with the growing acceptance of transgenics in society and the fact that she was no longer hunted.

"Look, I don't know what the hell your deal is, but I can NOT be a guest on your show!"

Mole leaned closer to her. "Look little girl, the government gave me this show because they knew it would make money. People have accepted the transgenics, but they are still afraid of us. The government knew that people would tune in. What they didn't know was that I would parade transgenic after transgenic up here exposing government missions and showing the world how invaluable the transgenics have been to the survival of the ordinary population. Alec here, has done more for this country than most, I was saving his interview for sweep's month. But an '09 escapee! That's a pot of Gold! You can talk about how you had to escape to save you lives. You can play it up, humanize us, and your young and pretty with your big doe eyes, they'll eat it up!"

"What about your scheduled guest? Logan Cale?" she reminded him. It had not escaped her that Logan was off to the side of the stage frowning at being kept waiting.

"Logan Cale? He's tool. And he's so power hungry, he'll come back anytime. I know how cagey you 'niners are. If I let you walk out of here now, I know I won't see you again. Besides, he's only Eyes Only's right hand man, I really wanted the man himself."

Their conversation was interrupted by Max's cell phone ringing. "It's Zack." She said and Alec released his hold on her to allow her to answer the call.

Alec smiled mischievously and whispered something to Mole. Startled, Mole looked up at Alec and then over to Logan on stage right. "Really?"

"Swear to…um…whatever a soul-less freak can swear to." Alec grinned.

"Hmmm. What should I do?" Mole asked Alec.

He and Mole chatted for a few minutes. Alec filled him in on the assassination attempt on his earlier and Mole promised to get some of his people to look into it later.

"I caught Axel's interview last week." Alec said conversationally.

"Yeah. That was fun. I had been saving him for a ratings boost too, but it was a slow week last week and the only guest I had lined up was a conspiracy theorist who doubles as a manager of a messenger service. Reagan Ronald was his name. What an ass. I couldn't deal with him, so I bounced him out of here and called in a favor from Axel."

"You know that story he told about Uzbekistan?"

"Yeah! It was great, the crowd ate it up like pudding." Mole smiled around his cigar.

"That was me not him! Little bastard stole my story!"

Mole laughed. "Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. That's rich. I thought it was a little gutsy for Axel. I mean, he's no pansy or anything, but I know you, him and Biggs were a team and I know you were the CO, so I should've figured he was full of shit when you weren't in the story."

"Nah. They did a few missions without me when I was…Um…indisposed….So it wasn't too far fetched. But it really was my story." Alec laughed.

Max was still on the phone when the producer signalled to Mole that they were coming back on. Alec shrugged.

Mole turned to the camera. "Change of plans. 452 is off to save the world. But we'll have her back another day." He glanced at Alec who nodded. "For now, we have our guest Logan Cale!"

The crowd applauded and Logan wheeled himself up to the stage.

"It's about time!" he snapped at Mole. Irritated at being kept waiting.

Alec smirked, it was not wise to upset a man like Mole.

"Oh. I'm sorry, did you not enjoy waiting?" Mole patronized him.

"Well, it's just that I am a very busy man and as Eyes Only's right hand man, I have duties and responsibilities. Not to mention all the fans that are here to see me today-"

Mole interrupted him. "Did you just say you were Eyes Only's right hand man? Because I have it on good authority from one of my top transgenic sources that you are Eyes Only!" Mole accused.

The crowd gasped.

Logan sputtered.

Max looked up from her phone conversation.

All hell broke loose…

TBC

Chapter 5


	5. Chapter 5

**  
Chapter 5 **

Max was happy for the distraction the vibrating cell phone in her pocket offered. _Thank god! Another minute of that and…_ She deliberately moved far away from Alec when he released his grip on her.

Turning away from the stage, she bent her head for a little privacy and flipped the phone open.

"Go for Max."

"You're lucky I love you, little sister. And believe me when I tell you, you owe me _big_ for this."

"Whatcha got, Zack?"

"I swiped my CO's access card and I'm in the Comms station. So make it fast. What exactly do you need?"

"Someone issued a hit on my boss. 4 guys, professional, state-of-the-art gear, well organized. Definitely not a Manticore job. I'd probably go with military. I need to know anything and everything about any deployments sent to take out a civilian target." She paused before adding, "Or a transgenic one, if they keep records of that kind of thing."

"Hang on. I'll see what I can do."

The sounds of frantic clacking and clicking filled the silence. Max could picture Zack, hunched over the keyboard, his hands moving furiously, eyes sweeping across the monitor. Zack had always been the best and fastest at everything. She knew it wouldn't be long before she had the answers she needed, assuming the military was involved.

"Damn. This might take a while. I'm gonna have to hack through some pretty tight security, Max. Stay by the phone. I'll get back to – ".

Complete silence.

"Zack?" There was no reply.

Then, "Shhh."

Max listened intently. She couldn't hear a damned thing. _What the hell is going on there?_ She asked again, "Zack?"

"Dammit, Max!" came the low and now slightly angry reply. "Does 'shhh' mean something else in your language?"

Prickling at his tone, she bit back. "Tell me what's going on."

More silence.

Finally, after what seemed like ages, Zack spoke, his voice still low. "I thought I heard something outside. I'm in a highly restricted area, Maxie. If I get caught here they won't go easy on me."

Hearing this she shuddered. Transgenics may be accepted and be active members of society, but finding one spying on the military wouldn't bode well for any of them. Max heard Zack resume typing and sighed silently in relief.

"Okay. The only deployments I can see listed were for training purposes and a military attachment accompanying the President in Ecuador . There was a group of about 20 soldiers sent to Atlanta for basic training. That's a 6 month gig. The 16 sent with the President aren't due to return for a week. Sorry Max, doesn't seem to be anything here."

She was about to reply when Zack laughed. When he didn't comment, she asked "What's so funny?"

"Oh my god, can you believe this? A platoon of soldiers in South East Asia put in a request for 'entertainment'! Entertainment, for Christ's sake! There's a list a mile long! Magazines, movies, women…Women! Like the military's gonna send a bunch of hookers for them to – "

A very frustrated Max cut him off abruptly. "Would you focus on the mission at hand? You men are all the same. It's always sex, sex, sex!"

"Oh come on, Maxie! You know you think about it too! Haven't you got a 'special someone' in your life? What about Lotu-Logan?" he baited, awaiting the inevitable denial.

"We're not like that and you know it! And my sex life is none of your business!"

"Well he seems to think you are. Anyway, Maxie, I know you're still pining for me. All that 'big brother' bullshit's just a front, isn't it? Can't wait to get me into bed when I'm home on leave…"

"You _sick bastard_! Like I'd ever – " She stopped suddenly when she heard Zack whistle.

Shaking her head in irritation she quickly asked, "What is it?"

"This is interesting. A special task force was sent to Seattle yesterday. Operation objective was to eliminate a major threat to National Security. Does your boss's work involve security? Technology? Anything that might put him on a government hit list? 'Cuz trust me, Maxie, these guys mean business. It was a special request from the President himself."

Max contemplated this. _What did Alec do to piss off the President? Wait, do I even want to know?_

"Who the hell do you work for anyway?"

"His name is Alec."

"Like I'd remember the guy from his name. Manticore wasn't big on giving us independence, Max. What's his designation?"

Thoroughly exasperated, Max replied shortly. "X5-494."

"Fuck! You're kidding right?"

"What, you knew him?"

"Come on Max! _Everybody knew about 494!_ I never met him in person, but even back then I was in awe. The guy was the business! He was one of the best, even back then. Better than me." Zack's voice took on a hint of jealousy. "So he's your boss, huh? You could do worse, believe me."

"He's a pain is the ass, is what he is." She muttered.

Suddenly there was a commotion in the background and Max could hear Zack's cry of surprise and the sound of the phone clattering on the floor. Then loud grunting and the sound of flesh hitting flesh assailed her ears.

"Zack? Zack! What's going on?"

"Shit." Came the muffled reply. "Max, I – ". More grunting. Something crashed loudly in her ear.

She could hear faint voices and only bits of the exchange. "Biggs? What are you…sorry, buddy, can't…"

"No way…like hell! Fuck off, Za – OW! What the hell was…"

"As if!...Not before…ass in a sling!" The sounds of fighting and loud bangs and thuds followed.

After a long pause, Zack's voice came over the line, breathing heavily.

"That was close."

"What the hell happened?"

"I'm not sure. One of the soldiers from another unit, this Biggs guy, came in and I have no idea why. Shit, what if he was sent to follow me? They're always suspicious of us transgenics. Dammit! Now I gotta get the hell outta here. Let him take the blame for the mess. Max, I'll get back to you."

The phone went dead. Max stared at the device in her hand for a while. _A big guy came in and freaked Zack out? What the hell? _But before she could consider her brother's actions fully, the loud goings-on around her brought Max back to reality.

TBC

Chapter 6


	6. Chapter 6

**  
Chapter ****6**

Logan was wide eyed. He turned to look directly into the camera to deny the accusation that he was, in fact, Eyes Only. He opened his mouth but before he could respond he saw one of the monitors by the stage. On the monitor was a split screen image of the Eyes Only banner next to a head shot of Logan. He recognized the picture, he had autographed it for the make-up girl before he'd come to the stage. Even he couldn't deny what was so blatantly obvious when you looked at it closely.

He closed his mouth and turned to face Mole. Taking in the Lizard man's feral grin, Logan swallowed the lump of fear in his throat.

Seeing the submission that was clear on Logan's face, Mole turned to the audience.

"That's right folks. You heard it here first. For years the United States government has been trying to uncover the identity of underground cyber-hacker Eyes Only, but it was a _ transgenic_ who got the job done." He punctuated each of the last five words of that sentence with a stab of his unlit cigar.

The audience applauded, clearly impressed.

Mole continued, "How about we do a little audience Q&A. Do any members of the studio audience have questions for our special guest?"

"I have a question for Eyes Only." Mole turned to the plaid-shirted man in the 3rd row and motioned for him to stand. "When you exposed Salinas you got a lot of innocent people involved, my uncle included. What do you have to say for yourself, knowing you hurt more people than you've helped?"

Logan sputtered. "Uh, well….I mean, I have helped many people…"

Logan was interrupted by a woman in the fifth row. "Didn't I see you down at the VA? When the S1W shot it up and declared that the place was full of corruption?"

Logan smiled, grateful for a question he could answer. "Why yes, that was me. Everyone there got their ration cards and I was able to do a cable hack to expose the corruption to the authorities." Logan puffed out his chest proudly.

The woman grabbed the microphone, wrapping her hand around Mole's. Mole looked at her in surprise. Most ordinaries steered clear of him—afraid. He smiled appreciatively, clearly impressed with this woman's courage.

"Well, I'll have you know that everyone _ present_ that day got their ration cards, but the following week they were forced to close under the shroud of corruption that you had thrown over the whole thing. My brother hasn't received any damn assistance since! And all because of you!"

Logan's smile disappeared.

A young man in the first row stood, "Hey you!" he said in a thick New York accent "Didn't you do one of your little hacks about mob boss Spinelli?"

"Yeah." Logan said warily. He wanted to brag a little about that one, it had been one of his most interesting cases, but with the way this 'interview' was going he was afraid to play up his involvement too much. With his luck this guy was probably

"Well, he was my brother. And thanks to you, he got a friggin' life sentence in the slammer!" As he spoke, he pulled a gun from inside his jacket.

Logan paled.

Alec, who had been silently enjoying the show up until this point, realized where this was going. He moved toward the gunman and dove toward him as the man was firing a shot at Logan.

The sound of the shot echoing in the studio was deafening. All of the sudden people were scrambling everywhere. Mole, who was still standing next to the Woman who had touched his hand, grabbed her and pulled her into his chest shielding her from possible danger as more guns were drawn and chaos ensued. The woman clung to him.

The entire staff of "The Mole Show" was made up of transgenics. Mole's theory was that if he was the star, he could employ who he wanted. Of course, that meant that pretty much everyone on the set was armed. So when that first gun was drawn, it was quickly followed by 45 more being drawn a nanosecond later.

Alec had tackled the gunman, but the danger was far from over as more and more members of the audience clamored for a piece of Eyes Only.

From the last row of the studio audience, another man stood up wielding a gun. "He's Eyes Only? I'll kill him! That bastard had my brother arrested for a crime he didn't commit!"

Realizing what had been going on around her as she had been on the phone with Zack, Max dropped her cell phone and dove at the latest gunman. The impact of her hitting him caused the gun to go off shooting Logan in the shin. He cried out in pain.

Alec disentangled himself from the original gunman and moved to help wheel Logan towards the exit. Over Logan's loud cries of pain, Alec said, "What the hell are you screaming for?"

"It hurts! I guess you've never been shot before. Where is Max? I'm sure she's worried sick about me." Logan bobbed around in his chair looking for Max.

"Look, I don't know how to say this delicately, but aren't you paralyzed from the waist down?" Alec ducked as another bullet came their way.

"Yeah."

"Well, you were shot in the shin. Should you even be able to feel it?" Alec asked pointedly.

Logan looked down. He stopped crying as he realized that Alec was right. He couldn't feel anything. With a tear streaked face he turned to Alec, "Uh. Um. It must've been phantom limb pains. Yeah that's what was going on. Have you ever heard about that? People who have lost the use of their limbs still sometimes remember pains that they can't actually feel?"

Alec rolled his eyes. "Yes, but I don't think it applies to a fresh injury." Alec turned around to assess the situation.

By this point, security had subdued Logan's would-be killers and Mole was addressing the crowd as if nothing had happened, his arm still firmly around the woman who seemed quite happy to be safe in his arms. Alec smirked. Mole was such a consummate professional. The show must go on.

Max materialized, seemingly from nowhere, at his side. Without even a glance at Logan she said to Alec, "We have to go _now_!"

"Why? What's wrong?" Alec asked letting go of Logans' wheelchair as she was already tugging him along after her.

"I'll explain in the car. Just come on."

"The car is parked out that way, Max." He pointed out helpfully, indicating the opposite direction of where they were heading.

She pushed open the double doors that led to the parking lot as she said, "Then we'll steal one. Move it!"

From way behind them, back inside the studio doors, Logan called after her, "Don't worry about me Max! It's just a little nick. I can't feel a thing!" As the double doors closed with a loud BANG.

* * *

Biggs jolted upright into a sitting position. Not remembering where he was, or what he was doing, he jumped to his feet and landed in a fighting stance.

After a quick survey of the room he remembered where he was, and why, and he was able to determine that he was alone, that he had fought with someone, and that he had to get out of there fast! Before he was caught by—

The door burst open and the lights were turned on. Biggs head snapped toward the door to find himself standing face to face with three MP's with guns drawn flanked by his angry female Commander. The same woman who had reprimanded him less than two hours ago in her office. _SHIT!_ Was the thought that came to mind.

"Private Biggs. Fancy meeting you here." She said. She looked at the MP's that were accompanying her. "Take him to my office. And handcuff him." She turned and stormed out like Darth Vader, leaving the three soldiers to do her bidding.

Five minutes later Biggs was standing at attention in his Commander's office with his hands cuffed behind his back.

She sat on the desk in front of him and crossed her legs, revealing just how beautiful they truly were. He couldn't help realizing that he had never seen her in a skirt before. He tore his eyes from her legs and forced his gaze straight ahead. _You're a solider goddamit!_

"Would you mind explaining to me why you are bruised and bleeding and were found in an area in which you are not cleared to be in?" she crossed her arms over her chest.

Biggs swallowed, wondering just what he was going to say.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with that phone call you received earlier from 'Ass Face' would it?"

"No Ma'am!"

"Because according to your file, you are a transgenic. It also says that you were one of the best in your series under Manticore's training. So I understand how you got into the secured area, but I'm wondering how you got caught. It doesn't make sense. It also doesn't make sense that you are as battered and bruised as you are. That would indicate to me that you were fighting another transgenic."

Biggs eyes widened slightly as he realized that she was right. No ordinary could have fought him back like that. And no ordinary could have knocked him out either. He quickly scanned his memory for any including Zack. Nothing came to mind. In fact, he had never seen him before he had enlisted in the military. That meant Zack was one of the '09 escapees!

"Biggs!" she yelled snapping his attention back to her. He had been so focused on trying to remember Zack that he hadn't noticed that she had stood up and walked over to him. She was standing so close that he could smell her perfume. It was sweet and feminine. A real contrast to her personality. He liked it. _Oh! I'm supposed to say something!_

"Yes ma'am!"

She got right in his face. "Were you or were you not fighting with another transgenic!" she yelled authoritatively.

"I'm not sure ma'am!"

She backed off slightly. "Explain yourself, soldier."

"Permission to speak freely?" she nodded. "Well, I think he was a transgenic. I don't know him from Manticore, but that doesn't mean he's not one."

"What were you both looking for?" her voice had lost some of its edge. Biggs noticed that she was kind of pretty when she wasn't scowling.

Before he could answer, his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. It's amazing how loud that sound can be in such a quiet room.

Her scowl snapped firmly into place as she walked over to Biggs and shoved her hand in his left front pocket. Biggs fought to not jerk away as her fingers came a little too close to 'little Biggsy' in her search for the phone. He was suddenly very aware that his hands were secured behind his back leaving him vulnerable to an attack if she were so inclined. And damn did she look pissed. She found what she was looking for and pulled the phone out holding it in front of Biggs face.

"Did I or did I not confiscate this phone this morning?" She said through gritted teeth.

"No ma'am!" Biggs barked like a true soldier.

"Explain yourself soldier!"

"This is a different phone, Ma'am!"

She pushed aside her fury and looked down at the phone. "The caller ID says that 'Shit Head' is calling you. I trust this is a relative of 'Ass Face'?"

Biggs silently cursed Axel for having ridiculous timing. He cringed as she answered the phone.

"Private Biggs illegal cell phone. I'm sorry he can't come to the phone. Can I take a message?" She asked shooting a death glare that made Biggs grateful that looks could not actually kill.

Not realizing that Biggs himself had not answered the phone, Axel jumped right in to conversation. "Biggs, tell me you're watching this! It's the best thing ever! All hell's broken loose on 'The Mole Show'. It's even better than the episode I was on. Damn Alec shows me up _ every_ time!"

"Excuse me Mr. Shit Head, but Private Biggs cannot watch television right now he's about to do some serious time in solitary confinement!"

Axel looked at the phone with some confusion. "Who is this?"

"His Commander." She said authoritatively.

Axel smiled. He had been opposed to Biggs joining the military from the beginning. He was pissed at the Government's ridiculous refusal to acknowledge the superior abilities and training of the transgenics and he took it as a personal insult that they were forced to start at the bottom and take orders from inferior, pompous _ordinaries_.

"Well, Commander Coconut, for the record, my name is Axel, not 'Shit Head' and you can toss him solitary confinement for two months for all he cares, because he's handled more than you can dish out sweetie. He has been tortured and violated in ways you can't even imagine. So take your stick-up-your-ass attitude and lay it on someone who gives a shit. And tell Biggs to call me later." He hung up before she could react.

Biggs, who had heard every word, fought to keep from cringing. He could only imagine what kind of shit he was going to take for that little bit of fun from Axel. Leave it to Axel to make a bad situation worse.

Stunned, she looked at Biggs. "Is that true?" she said surprising him with how meek she sounded.

He looked at her. "Is what true?"

"That you did a stint in solitary confinement that lasted two months?"

"Actually it was more like 73 days, but who's counting?" he forced a sardonic smile.

"What were you in for?"

"I was 17 seconds over the allotted time for completing a training exercise, Ma'am."

She looked at him disbelievingly.

He sighed. He didn't expect that she would actually understand. Manticore was one of those things that only made sense if you were there at the time. He looked away from her and stared straight ahead.

"Axel was my partner on the drill. He miscalculated his jump site and his parachute got stuck in a tree. He cut the straps to get himself down but he hit his head on a branch during his fall to the ground. He knocked himself out and landed badly breaking both his ankles. I found him and carried him on my back the rest of the drill. I got in trouble for changing mission parameters without orders. The handlers thought it would have been a good test of Axel's survival skills if I had left him as I found him."

A full minute went by and Biggs forced himself not to look at her.

"Dismissed, soldier." She said as she unlocked his handcuffs.

"Ma'am?" he asked.

"I'll let this one slide soldier. DON'T make me regret it." She turned her back on him indicating that the conversation was over.

Not wanting to push his luck, he saluted her (even though her back was to him) and headed back to the barracks.

He smiled to himself. There was _ no way_ he was telling Axel that he actually got him _ out_ of trouble. It would break his heart.

TBC

Chapter 7


	7. Chapter 7

**  
Chapter 7**

Max grabbed Alec's hand and they started running for the far end of the parking lot. They jacked the car easily. Max took off in the direction of Logan's place. She wanted more information and her source was unavailable just now.

They entered Logan's penthouse in the same manner they had earlier that evening. Alec couldn't help but shudder at the feeling of déjà vu that came over him.

"What are we doing here, _again_?" Alec was slightly miffed about being kept in the dark. Max hadn't said a single word all the way from the studio.

"We need more info. Zack's tapped out for the moment and what about your guy?" she asked as she turned to look at him.

Stripping off his jacket as he went, Alec pulled out a chair, sat down at the computer and started going through Logan's files.

"Nothing yet. He said he'd be in touch. Don't get so prissy."

Alec came to a file marked 'Hacks' and double clicked. The contents of the file spilled down the page as folder after folder of Logan 's saved broadcasts flooded the screen. Scanning the list, Alec's eye lit upon one in particular. 'Manticore.' Opening it he paused briefly and slammed his fist on the table.

"What is it?" Max asked as she hurried to his side. He just pointed to the screen and Max gasped. Max grabbed the mouse and clicked '494' open.

Personal information, medical, treatments, observations and top secret missions were there for anyone to see. His entire history as a Manticore soldier was exposed. He was vulnerable.

"What the fuck is this!" he bit out in anger. "Who the fuck is this guy that he thinks he can get his grubby little save-the-world fingers on my personal info? It's NONE OF HIS GODDAMN BUSINESS!"

Alec's eyes glowed with fury and he seethed as he pounded his hand into the wall above the monitor.

Max tilted her head, her face showing bewilderment. "Why would he do that?"

"I don't know but I'm gonna kill him." Alec growled as he snatched up his jacket and ran for the door.

Max called out behind him. "Alec! Wait!"

He paused and turned to look at her. He eyed her questioningly.

"I'm coming with you."

He snorted and replied "Why do you care?"

Max shook her head.

"I just want to know why he did it."

Alec smirked and said, "Pfft. We both know why, Maxie. You're obviously hung up on your non-boyfriend. But that's ok. I can and _will_ wait for you." She just looked at him, mouth hanging open as he took her hand and pulled her toward him.

Max followed, sputtering. "What the hell! I _told_ you! We're not like that! And I wouldn't touch _you_ if my life depended on it!"

Alec looked down at their touching bodies and entwined fingers and then back at her indignant face.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, sweetheart, but you're _definitely_ touching me. Not that I mind." he grinned sexily at her.

Max whipped her hand out of his grasp, took a big step back and glared at him.

Alec turned to leave when Max's arm shot out to stop him.

"What did you do to –" She stopped mid-sentence as if unsure how to begin.

Alec waved generously at Max. "No, no. Go on, please."

Max opened her mouth and then shut it only to open it again a moment later. Putting her hands up in a gesture of dismissal, she rolled her eyes at Alec.

"Whatever. Look, I just decided. No job is worth this shit. You're on your own, pal."

Alec looked at her, his face blank though his eyes sparkled with mirth. "What the hell are you talking about, Max? Does this have anything to do with why you dragged me out of a _very_ entertaining show?"

He's laughing at me, the bastard!

Max flipped her hair over her shoulder haughtily. "Zack tells me my boss pissed off some extremely well-connected guy. Pissed him off to the point where his PRESIDENTIAL ASS put a HIT out on you! What the fuck did you do, Alec?"

"Ah crap! I'm gonna kill him!" Alec shook his head in disbelief. He rubbed his face and ran a hand through his hair. "I shoulda drowned the rat-bastard when I first found out."

"What are you talking about? Better yet, WHO are you talking about? What did you do, sleep with the First Lady?" Max laughed so hard she thought her sides would split.

"Eeeewww! Like I'd fuck the First Lady. I've got standards!"

"Riiiight. So what did you do to make him want you dead?"

Alec rubbed his jaw and cocked his head to one side before answering. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Max just glared at him. He shrugged.

"Fine. Well one of my buddies nailed the President's daughter." Max's mouth formed an 'O' of surprise. "She's engaged to some senator or other and if the story gets out it could ruin the President's chances at re-election, not to mention the girl's plans for marriage. This senator guy, McElroy I think, is well-connected and very wealthy."

He looked at Max whose mouth was already open to reply. He put a finger to her lips.

"And before you say anything, no. I have NO idea why he would think it was me." He pursed his lips in concentration. Max couldn't help thinking how sexy he looked when he made that face. "But I've got the feeling Axel might."

The touch of his finger on her skin sent a bolt of electricity running through Max's body. She tried to shrug off the feeling, though she was still very warm and light-headed.

"Zack said the memo referred to you as a 'threat to National Security.'" She replied in a breathy whisper.

Alec stared intently at her, the effect of her whisper causing his eyes to darken.

"We'll have to find out why he thinks that then, won't we." He breathed back seductively. His voice was husky and it sent shivers down Max's spine.

Alec took a step toward Max until their bodies were flush against each other. He lowered his lips to hers, slowly, never taking his eyes off her.

Max moaned in anticipation of his kiss. She could feel his hot breath brushing her lips, scant millimeters from his own.

The moment was shattered by the loud ringing of Alec's cell phone. He pulled back abruptly. "Dammit!" he muttered angrily. "Somebody out there hates me!"

Shaken from her momentary insanity, Max glared at Alec. "What the hell do you think you were doing! And answer the damn phone!" She stomped her foot in frustration and aggravation. Alec drove her crazy and fired her passion. He was a walking contradiction. Sexy, intelligent, funny, annoying, distracting and…_infuriating! _

"Can this night get any worse?" he mumbled as he flipped the phone open.

"'Lo?"

"Alec? Axel. I got a problem."

Alec smiled evilly. "Damn straight."

Axel hesitated. "What do you mean?" he asked, unsure of his friend's reaction.

"Never mind. But can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Well, hypothetically speaking…"

"Come on, Alec. Just tell me already!" Axel replied good naturedly. Alec was…he wasn't sure what he was, but it definitely wasn't what Axel had expected.

"So, what would you do if you found out your friend was fucking this awesome girl..." Alec paused for effect.

"Yeeeeah?" Axel wondered where Alec was going with this. "Who's the lucky guy and is she hot?"

"That's just the thing, Axel, buddy. I'm not quite sure but I suspect…"

Axel's stomach was doing flip flops. Alec sounded…like he was in the know. _Uh oh._

"…that YOU already know if she's hot." Alec paused again and he heard Axel swallow audibly.

"Alec, I – "

Alec cut him off. "I already know that you're screwing the President's daughter, correct? Then tell me this. Did you or didn't you tell her your name was Axel Douglas?" The question was harsh. Axel could picture Alec's face and he knew that now was not a time for joking around.

"Um…"

"Spit it out, Axel!"

"No." was his hushed answer.

"Ok. Humor me some more." Alec heard Axel gulp and knew he had him. "Did you or did you not tell her your name was Alec McDowell?"

Another gulp. "Ye-yes."

"Dammit Axel! Do you have any idea how much shit I'm in because of that little stunt of yours! The President sent a team after me. I'm not just on the shit list, I'm on the friggin HIT LIST!"

Alec paused a moment before adding, "And the icing on the whole friggin' cake? You probably fucked up the only chance I had at getting laid tonight!"

Max hissed. "As if!" She had heard the question and hit Alec hard in the shoulder. "You're so full of yourself!" He yelped and pouted prettily at her. She scowled back.

Axel wasn't sure whether or not to laugh. He knew Alec was angry. So he ventured a "What's with the girl, Alec? Having a hard time?"

"She plays rough. And don't change the subject!" Was the snappy reply.

Axel quickly continued. "Alright! Jeez!" His voice took on a serious tone. "Okay, look I don't know what I can do to fix this…and I'm sorry. But that's not why I called."

Alec was still seething but he encouraged Axel to talk. "Just tell me."

"Jill spilled the beans to McElroy. He's after me and I need a place to lay low."

"Great. Just great! First you fuck my life up by saying you're me, then you complicate things by getting caught. Fan-fucking-tastic! I should leave you to your own mess, but on second thought…you can stay with me." Alec's tone had taken on a curiously mocking timber. Axel didn't like the sound of it but he had no choice.

"I'm on the red-eye from DC first thing in the morning. Thanks man."

"My pleasure…man." Alec grinned nastily and snapped the phone shut.

* * *

Alec turned back to Max, a feral smile gracing his lips. He had been so close…he wanted Max. There was no denying it. And he was sure she wanted him too. Call it lust, call it insanity, it was overpowering his senses.

"Max." his voice was husky with desire as he held her gaze.

"Alec?" she replied icily. She wasn't falling under his spell again. _Never mix business and pleasure,_ she reminded herself. But slowly she was being drawn into the swirling pool of green and gold in his eyes. _Dammit, Max! Don't go there! _But she was powerless to resist and her resolve broke.

Their lips met in a bruising kiss. Max had never been kissed like this before. It was as if Alec wanted to devour her, and devour her he was. She was light-headed, drowning in the sensations his touch aroused in her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer.

The slam of the door and subsequent scream of disbelief made the two transgenics jump apart.

Logan was in the doorway, staring at Max.

"Max! How could you! I love you! I thought you loved me!" Logan whined. The image was ridiculous and Alec couldn't contain his laughter.

"What are you laughing at? You think trying to steal my girl is funny?" he pointed a finger at Alec as his head bobbed up and down with every word.

Alec laughed harder but finally sobered. Max looked between the two. She seemed torn between her non-boyfriend and the man who had robbed her of her senses less than two minutes before.

"I'm not trying to steal 'your' girl, old man! Max made it perfectly clear that the two of you 'aren't like that' and it was even _more_ clear when she was kissing me."

Turning to Max he gave her a sexy, suggestive smile. "You're one helluva kisser, Maxie. You up for another round?"

Max came to her senses and punched Alec hard in the gut.

"Fuck, Max. I told you, don't _do_ that!" Alec was doubled over, clutching himself tightly.

"Then don't provoke me, you ass." She turned to Logan who was still staring, mouth open, at the display.

"You," she pointed at him angrily, "and I," she pointed at herself in turn, "NEVER had that kind of relationship." Max threw her hands up in disgust. "And we NEVER will! Get it through your head, Logan! This is quid-pro-quo, remember? I scratch your back and you scratch mine."

Alec let out a painful laugh. "Watch it Maxie, Logie might want his back scratched in more ways than one."

"Eeeew! As IF!" Max looked about ready to hurl.

"What do you mean, eew? Max, you don't really mean that!" Logan pleaded with Max. _She doesn't really mean it, she can't!_

"SHUT UP!" Alec and Max yelled at once.

Logan had been perched on the edge of his chair. He jerked forward in reaction to their combined shout. Logan lost his balance and slumped to the floor.

Max turned back to Alec, her anger had faded and her lips curled up at one side.

"Don't you _ever_ shut up!"

"Nope. Come on, Maxie, you know you love it!"

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and Max threw her hands up in defeat. "Whatever."

Looking at Logan again she put her hands on her hips. "So, you gonna tell us why you have personal info on Alec here?"

Logan was bewildered. "Huh?"

"Don't play dumb, Logan. You know that Alec is 494. Why do you have files on him? And for that matter...how many other transgenics are you keeping tabs on, huh? Cuz I'm beginning to wonder if you've been holding out on me" Max had taken a few steps toward Logan and he was visibly shaking.

"N-n-nothing. No one. Nothing else, Max, I swear!" Logan wiped the sweat from his face and looked defiantly at Max.

"Riiiiight. You're sweating and noticeably nervous. You're not hiding anything. Well, I guess I'll have to find out myself, huh?" Max strode over to the computer. Logan tried to pull himself quickly towards her, scraping his chest against the hard floor in his haste to cut her off. But even had Logan not been crippled, he would have been no match for Max's transgenic speed, or Alec's for that matter as the handsome X5 stepped in front of him, stopping him cold in his tracks.

"Don't think so, buddy. We're gonna let Max figure this out." he sent an evil smile in Max's direction. She didn't acknowledge him but Logan recognized her rigid posture and took it to mean she was all business. _Shit._

After a few minutes, Max whipped around and glared at Eyes Only. Her hands were clenched into tight fists at her sides. Alec could hear her knuckles cracking and felt her anger rolling off her in waves. _God, she's beautiful!_

Max spoke to Alec, never taking her eyes off Logan.

"You wanted to kill him? Get in line!"

TBC

Chapter 8


	8. Chapter 8

**  
Chapter 8**

Max was seething.

Logan faced her with a look of pure unadulterated fear gracing his features. He gulped, and steeled himself for the confrontation. "Max I can explain…"

"Shut Up!" She yelled as she closed the distance between them. She fisted her hands in his shirt and lifted him off the floor. Through clenched teeth she said, "Don't Speak! Don't Move! Don't even breathe!"

She dropped him unceremoniously back into his seat and turned to face Alec. Sparing a glance back at Logan, she placed her hands on Alec's cheeks and pulled him in for a gentle, sensuous kiss. As she heard Logan whimper like a little girl behind her, she deepened the kiss, torturing him a little more.

Alec knew she was using him. And he meant to protest, he really did, but the bottom line was, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen was devouring him in the most seductive kiss he'd ever experienced. What red-blooded male would care what the reason was?

Max's desire for Alec started to overtake her anger at Logan and it snapped her back to reality. She took two large steps away from Alec to clear her head.

She turned to Logan. She was just about to start her tirade when the front door opened and Asha walked in. Logan cringed. Now was not the time to make Max any madder.

Asha walked further into the room taking in the scene. As her eyes fell on Alec, she stopped dead in her tracks. "Alec?" she said in a breathy whisper.

Max's head snapped around and she looked at Alec. He was like a deer caught in the headlights.

He cleared his throat. "Hi Asha."

"You two _know_ each other?" Max asked accusatorily.

"_Know each other_ is sort of a strong way to put it." He said, scratching absentmindedly at his chin, evading the answer.

"How would you put it then, Alec?"

His tongue slid out of the corner of his mouth and he bit his bottom lip. "Um. We met once?"

Asha put her hands on her hips and huffed, "We met once? That's what you call it? Because I call it—"

"I don't want to hear it!" Max yelled. "There are more important matters to deal with. Logan, if you even _ think_ about doing an Eyes Only hack before I get back, _ I will kill you_. Asha, if you don't get out of my sight, I'll kill you just for fun. And _you_," she said turning on Alec, "You're on your own. I have my own drama to deal with."

She spun on her heel and started to leave the penthouse.

"Max!" Alec called after her as hurried to catch up with her. He caught her arm and spun her back around to face him. "Wait. I'll help you."

"I don't need your help, Alec. I wouldn't want to get in the way of you 'meeting' anyone else."

"It's not like that."

"Right."

"I mean, it was, but it's not like that anymore."

"Whatever."

"Max. Come on. We make a good team, we're having fun. Don't walk away because I spent one night six months ago with Blondie over there."

Max looked down. When she looked back up at him she was composed and her emotions were under control.

"It's not that. The file I found, it's my brother. My brother Ben. Logan has known for five years where he is and he's kept it from me."

* * *

Zack was an early riser. It was kind of required in boot camp, but that wasn't why. He had always been an early riser. Even back at Manticore. He would get up a little bit before everyone else, walk through barracks and check on everyone. He didn't like any surprises and if anyone under his command was sick or hurt or hiding something, he needed to know about it to protect the unit.

Boot camp was different. Here, there was nobody under his command, and there was no punishment worth being afraid of. This definitely wasn't Manticore. But Zack was a morning person and he found that the only time he could get any peace and quite was early in the morning.

This morning he was hoping for a quick shower. When he had snuck back into the barracks after the little 'errand' he had gone on for Max, there had been too many people around and he hadn't been able to clean all the blood off of himself. Not that there was much blood, but still, his little fight with Biggs had left behind some evidence on his skin and he needed to clean in off.

So, he headed into the showers. He stripped off his fatigues and stepped into hot stream of water. He was just getting his face wet when he was snapped on the ass with a towel.

His rage fueled in an instant and he spun to face the cocky bastard stupid enough to attack an X-5.

"Morning sunshine." Biggs smiled cheekily from the entrance to the showers.

Zack clenched his fists and stared him down. "Here for another ass-whipping?"

"Well, here's the thing, I didn't exactly earn the one I got last night. And for the record, you didn't 'whip my ass', you gained the upper hand."

"I knocked you out, Biggs."

"Maybe I'm here to return the favor."

Zack smiled in a feral grin. "Didn't get enough last night? 'Cause I could use the workout."

"Yeah, well I have kind of a problem with that."

"Well, I didn't have a problem doing it last night, and if you don't let me enjoy my shower I'll gladly do it again. So if you're done admiring the goods, would you let me get back to it?"

"Don't flatter yourself. I'm not here for a peek at your peanuts. We have some business to discuss."

"Business?"

"Yeah, well, I got busted last night seeing as how you knocked me out and left me to take the fall for your little B&E stunt."

"That's a sad story princess. What does it have to do with me?"

"I could turn you in." Biggs suggested conversationally.

Zack looked up. He didn't need any trouble. Being a transgenic was trouble enough.

"I thought that would get your attention." Biggs smiled.

Zack grunted and turned off the shower. He reached up and grabbed a towel quickly tying it around his waist. He crossed his arms over his chest and turned to the other man.

"What do you want?"

"I need a favor." Biggs said simply.

"Look, I know I'm a pretty boy, but I'm not gonna suck your-"

"Ew! Where the hell did that come from? Why would you automatically jump to that conclusion? I mean, I don't wanna brag, but I get more chicks than-"

Zack held up a hand to stop Biggs before he got started. "Fine. Fine. Whatever. What is it that you want?"

"I have this friend-"

"Oh this is gonna be good." Zack rolled his eyes.

"Do you want to hear it or not?"

"Please. Continue."

"Anyway. As I was saying, I have this friend. He's in a little trouble and he asked me to look into it. Which is what I was trying to do last night. Until you beat me up and got me caught."

"So you admit I kicked you ass?"

Biggs rolled his eyes and continued. "Anyway, Fowler interrogated me-"

"Major Fowler? Sylvia Fowler?"

"I guess. Why?"

"No reason."

"You think she's hot too, huh?" Biggs smiled as he had a flashback of her sitting on her desk last night in her office.

Zack smirked. "We, uh, used to be involved."

"Right." Biggs said disbelievingly.

"Really, we were. Then she found out that I am a trans-"

"Look, I don't give a fuck about your personal life. What I need you to do is dig up the information for my friend. Because now that the Commander is all over my ass, I can't do it myself."

"What do you mean 'all over your ass'?"

"Jealous?"

"Fuck you."

Biggs smiled knowingly. "Here's what I need." Biggs handed him a piece of paper.

Zack looked at the paper in Biggs outstretched hand considering the consequences for a second before he took it. It's not like he wasn't going to have to be doing the same shit for Max anyway. What's a few extra minutes of hacking when you're already doing it anyway.

"When?"

"ASAP. I'll find you later."

"Fine."

"Pleasure doing business with you, my friend." Biggs held out his hand to seal the deal with a handshake.

Zack stared at the outstretched hand and ignored it. "We're not friends." He said and headed back towards his barracks.

TBC

Chapter 9


	9. Chapter 9

**  
Chapter 9**

After they had left Logan's they'd gone to Alec's place. She'd stayed awake to keep watch. She looked around the room. It was dark still, and the only sound to be heard was the steady breathing coming from the man in the next room. Rising from the couch, Max entered Alec's room and looked at him, fully clothed and draped sexily across the bed.

He was beautiful. And funny, she admitted reluctantly. He made her laugh and it had been a long time since she'd felt comfortable enough to be herself. She wanted to reach out and tuck the stray hair behind his ear, the one that fell across his face and hid his eyes. She wanted to run her hands -

Max shook herself. _He's a man-whore. A player. Alec and Asha..._ she couldn't get the image of them out of her head. So what if it was an image she projected? So what if he told her it had been months ago. He was too suave...too sure of himself. It wouldn't do to linger with thoughts of Alec. _Way to go, Max. Making more problems when you've got too many as it is._

Max turned her thoughts to her brothers. She wondered if Zack was ok. She was worried about him. He hadn't called back and she knew better than to push him. He'd contact her when he had more information.

And Ben. All this time he'd been alive and well, living here in Washington state! So close she could almost reach out and touch him. Logan had lied to her and stolen years from her. Years where she could have been with her family. She'd had Zack and she knew where Syl was, but hadn't seen her in ages. It was the remaining siblings she longed to see. And anger fuelled her. _Logan._

Standing quietly by the window, Max replayed in her mind all the times Logan had lied to her, telling her he had no information on any of her siblings, and it made her blood boil.

Alec woke to see Max's rigid form by the window. The moonlight cast her shadow on the wall. He quietly got up from the bed and walked over to stand behind her. He reached out to stroke her hair, a light, soothing gesture. Max just sighed and leaned into his touch, deeply entrenched in thought. He could see how badly she was taking the news of Logan's deception and he wanted to help but he was reluctant to push the issue.

Finally he couldn't take the silence any longer.

"You said Logan hid your brother's location from you. Your brother, huh? Your unit must have been pretty close."

"Like siblings. We always called each other brothers and sisters. It was the one good thing we had in Manticore. A family."

"I know the feeling. I don't exactly call them brothers, but Biggs and Axel are the closest thing I've got to family."

Surprised, Max turned to look at Alec. "What are you talking about! You've got a twin. You have _actual_ family and you don't care?"

Alec snorted in disgust. "You mean 493? The traitor? I refuse to acknowledge that I'm related to him."

"You're a real bastard, you know?" Max was incredulous. _Is he really that callous? _

"Why? Because I have a twin whose escape sent me to Psy-Ops? I'm not apologizing."

Max folded her arms across her chest and looked him squarely in the eye. "If Ben's a traitor, so am I."

"Wait. So Ben's my..._he's_ 493?"

"Give the man a star!"

Alec kicked himself mentally for calling his brother a traitor. Even if they had all been taught that the '09ers were traitors. He didn't think of Max like that. Strange, but true.

"Look Max, I'm sorry. I didn't mean -"

Max put her hands on her hips and she glared at Alec in contempt.

"Oh you meant it alright. I should be used to it. Every transgenic I've met feels the same way. You don't know Ben, so who the hell are you to judge? But see, I get it. We had the guts to leave and you pansy-asses feel stupid you didn't think of it first."

"Whatever you have to tell yourself, Maxie. Look, I don't wanna fight. I'm sorry. You're right, I have a twin, family. And you're right, I don't know Ben." As an afterthought he added. "But I'd like to meet him."

Max looked up in surprise. Alec was a walking contradiction. One minute he refused to acknowledge his brother, the next he wanted to meet him. She narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

"You're not just saying that 'cause I wanna hear it? 'Cause I wouldn't put it past you to try anything to get me to sleep with you."

Alec put his hand over his heart and twisted his face in mock-hurt. "Maxie, that hurts, it really does. As if I'd stoop that low."

"Wouldn't you?" she shot back, tossing her head and flipping her hair over her shoulder.

Searching his mind for the perfect comeback, Alec stilled suddenly. He put his fingers to Max's lips and pointed at the wall.

A line of red dots ran along the center. Laser beams! Sniper rifle laser beams! The strike team had found them. Alec signalled to Max and she nodded. They crouched low and crept into the bathroom. Alec quickly peeked out the window and saw to his relief that the alley below seemed clear and there was no sign of danger. He thanked his lucky stars that the people out to kill him were Ordinaries. They'd slipped up and he planned to take advantage of that.

He tugged gently at Max's arm and pushed her toward the window. Hoisting her up, she wiggled through and dropped the 3 floors to the alley below. She looked up to see Alec flying through the window headfirst. The sound of gunfire filled the air and she saw his body jerk, and he fell forward. She blurred to catch him but he landed on his own. If you could call falling on your head a landing.

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow! Damn, that hurt." he rubbed his head with one hand and brushed himself off with the other.

"Such poise, such grace." Max couldn't resist ribbing him.

"I'd like to see you do better." he muttered as he grit his teeth and rolled over.

"What the hell just happened!" she asked worriedly, taking in his pained features and rapidly paling skin.

"I was shot Maxie. What does it look like happened? We need to get out of here!" He tried to stand but the bullet had caught him right below the ass. "Damn. Why's it _always_ my ass!" he muttered in frustration. "My ass is a friggin bullet magnet."

Max held back a laugh as she helped him to his feet. Leaning heavily on her, they rushed down the alleyway and into the quiet street. Careful to keep to the shadows, Max practically dragged Alec to her apartment.

They made their way up the stairs and Max hurriedly unlocked the door and stumbled on something, sending both her and Alec sprawling, the latter releasing a groan of pain as he landed on his wounded butt.

* * *

Zack finished his shower, dressed and hurried off to find Major Fowler. Even as he thought it, he smiled. He shouldn't be surprised. His entire unit had been comprised of extremely capable and intelligent children. Syl had been like Ben; needing structure and discipline. The military would have been good for him. It was certainly working for Syl. Who would have thought, his little 'sister' Syl would be a commander, no, correction Major, in the United States Armed Forces? He still couldn't get Manticore rankings out of his head. The military had too many people in the chain of command.

Funny, he could laugh at it now. Why hadn't he gone the route Syl had? Sneak in and take a command position instead of starting as a lowly grunt? Right. Max. She'd talked him out of it, told him it would be better to prove himself, prove to the military, to the government, to the fucking Ordinaries that transgenics could pull their weight, just like anyone else. She'd been hanging around that Lotus guy too long. Like he cared what Ordinaries thought. But he _did_ care about Max. So he'd gone along with it.

Zack pulled the note Biggs had given him from his pocket. Looking down at the scrap of paper in his hand he noticed something too strange to be a coincidence.

_Alec McDowell, Vice President, JRA Media Corporation.  
Attempted assassination: 14/12/21, 18:34, parking garage  
4 professionals  
1. Who  
2. Why_

_I know you'll do whatever necessary._

Zack's thoughts drifted back to Syl. When he'd first arrived, she'd gone into heat and...Zack licked his lips in memory of their passionate kisses. Syl was hot. He couldn't help himself. And when her pheromones had hit him, they'd both lost control.

Zack laughed as he recalled the conversation he'd had with Max. She'd called in a rage, having heard about the incident from Syl. And she has been furious.

_"How could you - you - do _that_ with your own sister! You're disgusting! Why, Zack? It's almost...incestuous!"_

_"We're _not_ related, Maxie. There was nothing wrong with it." He paused a moment. "Well, except Syl leaving me with a throbbing hard on and a bruised stomach! She can hit almost as hard as you."_

_"I do _not_ need to hear this! You're a pig! Your own _sister!_"_

_Exasperated, Zack had thrown up his hands and raised his voice to a shout. "I DID NOT FUCK SYL!"_

_Silence on the other end of the line._

Finally he'd had to admit that he didn't get that far. Syl had figured out that he was transgenic, and that he was _Zack. _It had been one helluva mood killer. Syl had put a stop to things right away, kicking him dead center in the stomach and sending him sprawling on the floor. And Zack hadn't been pleased, to say the least. Blue balls hurt like the devil. He winced at the memory.

The two had since sorted things out and Syl was an invaluable resource to him on the base. And he needed her help.

Knocking smartly on her office door he waited for a reply.

"Enter."

Syl eyed him as he sauntered into the room, looking as if he owned it. Zack had an air about him that bespoke authority. She still had a hard time believing she held higher status than him and could actually throw him in the brig on a whim.

"So, what can I do for you, big brother?" she asked, smiling up at Zack as he stood to face her.

"I've got a problem."

"Ah. And that makes it _my_ problem obviously." Syl raised an eyebrow at him and pursed her lips.

"Obviously." was the patronizing reply. Zack leaned forward over the desk. "I hear you met up with Biggs in the comms station yesterday."

Syl's brow furrowed. "I didn't tell anyone about that and the soldiers who were with me were ordered not to discuss it. How do _you _know about it?"

"I have my sources." he replied smoothly, the cocky smile never leaving his face.

"One of these days you're gonna get me into trouble and then no one's going to be here to save your ass." Syl said pointedly.

He leaned further over the desk. "I'm a big boy. I can take care of myself, _sweetheart_." he answered, raising his eyebrow suggestively and flashing her a seductive smile. Syl could be as annoying as Max and just as self-involved. Teasing her was just too much fun.

"Aaaargh! You're unbelievable! I'm NOT your sweetheart and I never will be! Get it through your head! I. Was. In. Heat! I wouldn't touch you with a ten-foot pole." Syl punctuated each word with a jab to his chest.

"Sheath the claws, kitten! I'm not worried. You'll come 'round." he raised himself up and crossed one foot in front of the other, hands in his pockets, cool as a cucumber.

Syl sputtered in indignation, muttering curses under her breath and at a loss for words, she just shook her fists at him.

Finally he gave in. "If you have to know, I was the one who knocked Biggs out." he grinned widely, remembering how good it had felt to slam his fist into his fellow soldier's face.

Syl looked at him and sighed. "I thought it might be." She rose from her seat, walked over to where Zack was standing and leaned back against the desk before continuing. "You gonna tell me what you were looking for?"

"Information. Turns out the President ordered a special task force to put a hit out on a guy who happens to be a fellow transgenic. From the files I couldn't tell if they were aware he's transgenic or not."

Syl paled at his words. "What if you or Biggs had been sent as part of that task force? What if the military starts killing us off?"

"Syl, take a chill pill for Chrissakes! Why would you care if Biggs was on the task force anyway? Are you two _involved_?"

"As if! Is sex the only thing you think about?" Syl's face showed disgust and annoyance.

"You need to ask?" Zack grinned and shrugged. "Just tell me something. Is Biggs transgenic? 'Cause he's damn strong for an Ordinary."

"Losing your touch, Zackie? Can't recognize your own kind? Lydecker would be so disappointed!" Syl taunted Zack, loving every minute of it. They'd been trained to pick up on these things and she wouldn't let him live it down. "Biggs is X5. It's so blatantly obvious!"

"Oh and I'm sure it was _blatantly obvious_ to _you_, straight off the bat. Right?" he shot back at her. Zack caught the embarrassed flush that crept up her neck and covered her face. "I rest my case." he said smugly, chuckling.

Zack collected his thoughts as he came back to the issue.

"Okay, so I need more information. Can you get me back into the comms station?"

She nodded. Tilting her head to one side, she put a finger to her lips. "I'd like to know why Biggs was there."

Zack studied her face carefully. The light note in her voice and the soft sigh that followed the utterance of his name made Zack think there was more to her musings than curiosity.

"Ok. So you're not involved. But you like him, don't you." It was a statement, not a question.

Syl blushed again and shrugged. Zack shook his head in disbelief. "He's a cocky, arrogant, annoying prick and there's_ no way in hell _I'll let him near you!"

"What gives you the right! You won't _let_ him? You don't own me!" Taking deep breaths, Syl calmed herself down. It wouldn't do to get riled up. She was better than that.

"Why do _you_ think Biggs was there? Though it would probably save us the trouble if we asked him directly."

Zack thought a minute. "Maybe he knows 494." Syl eyed him curiously. "The guy I was trying to get the info about? Hello, earth to Syl! I've been trying to get more details on the hit for Maxie. 494 is her boss."

"Maxie? How's she doing?" Syl's face lit up at the mention of her little sister. It had been years since they'd seen each other and Syl missed her.

Zack threw his hands up and pressed them to the side of his head "It wasn't a social call, Syl." Zack was exasperated and he muttered under his breath, "Women. Minds always wandering, can't pay attention for two minutes."

An indignant Syl smacked her brother on the arm. "I heard that! I didn't sleep my way up to Major, you know!"

Zack couldn't resist a smirk. "Nah. You worked you way _down_ the list!" Zack ticked a finger with each name. "There was...Captain Beaker, First Lieutenant Galin, Sergeant Billings, Corporal Jones...and I know you and Larson went at it! Not to mention -"

Without warning, Zack fell flat on his back, an incensed Syl sitting atop him straddling his legs.

"Don't finish that sentence if you value these." she hissed through clenched teeth as she grabbed him by the balls.

Before he could reply, the door flew open and General Novak, Syl's superior and the one man Zack truly feared in the military, entered the room together with Colonel Fredericks and a handful of MPs.

"Major! What the hell is going on here? I heard the rumors but I thought you were better than that."

Quickly, before anyone noticed, Zack removed the note from his pocket and stuffed it in his mouth. He chewed hard, and finally swallowed. Getting caught with that information would only lead to more trouble than he was already in. And he knew this was going to be bad.

Turning to the Colonel, General Novak spoke quickly. "Remand Major Fowler to my private quarters." Glancing at Zack he motioned to the MPs. "And throw _him_ in the brig. I'll deal with him later."

Zack was handcuffed and shoved outside. He stole a glance at Syl and saw her frustration and fear. The military had no idea she was transgenic and she didn't need the complication. She shot an icy glare his way.

"Hey, if General piss-on-my-parade hadn't come in, do you think I woulda scored?" Zack looked hopeful as he whispered the words.

Syl was generally good natured and quiet but Zack certainly knew how to push all the wrong buttons. Without hesitation she replied angrily and in a _very_ loud voice.

"You're sick! I wouldn't fuck you if you were the last man alive!"

The General whipped his head around and stared. "Are you trying to tell me that Private Thompson tried to take advantage of you, Major?"

TBC

Chapter 10


	10. Chapter 10

**  
Chapter 10**

Max disentangled herself from Alec and reached up to turn on the light.

"Sketchy?" she asked the lump on the floor that had caused her and Alec to trip as they came in the door.

"Uhnnnnn." The stoner groaned without even lifting his head.

"Friend of yours?" Alec asked as he rolled to his side in an attempt to alleviate some of the pain caused by the bullet still lodged in his ass.

"Yeah. He's not all that great at holding his liquor, or making a first impression." Max gave a look of distaste as she tugged on Sketchy's shirt looking for signs of vomit. "But he's good people." Max hefted Sketchy off the floor and helped him over to the armchair by the window. She opened it allowing some cool air to blow in on his face, hoping to keep him from puking.

She turned back toward Alec who was trying to get up off of the floor without bending his right leg at all. Smiling, she reached down and offered him a helping hand. He looked up at her and accepted the hand with a twinkle in his eye. Dropping all his weight as she began to pull, Max overestimated the pull required and yanked him up so hard that he toppled back over and landed on top of her.

Flat on her back, pinned underneath his weight, Max looked down at him. His face had landed between her breasts. He made no move to get up.

Recovering her senses, Max pushed him. "Get the hell off of me!"

"I'm trying." Came his muffled reply.

At that exact moment, the bathroom door opened in a cloud of steam and Original Cindy and a petite blond came out wrapped in matching towels.

"Max! Where've you been? I been pagin' yo ass all night!" Cindy smiled as Max worked her way out from underneath Alec.

"You know how it is. The new boss is a slavedriver." She gestured to Alec as she spoke.

Cindy looked Alec up and down unabashedly and gave him an approving smile. "Damn girl, what kind of work you doin'?"

Alec held out a hand and introduced himself. "Alec McDowell. A pleasure." He said as he looked her up and down. His gaze took in every droplet of steam clinging to her coffee colored skin. He was interrupted by OC herself smacking him upside his head.

"Sorry, pretty boy, Original Cindy don't play for that team."

"Sounds like a challenge." He winked at her as he rubbed his head where she's slapped him.

"Many men have tried, and all have failed. I like 'em soft and curvy, not big and hard." She winked back at him.

"That's me—Big and Hard." He said as he stretched, showcasing the sleek lines of his muscles under his shirt.

"Oh would you two get a room already." Max spoke up from behind them.

Cindy turned around and as if just remembering she was there, Cindy introduced Amber, her new girlfriend and then filled Max in on how Sketchy had come to be passed out on the floor of their apartment. Not that it was anything new. Sketchy frequently spent the night at the girls' apartment after a night of too much partying, just not in the doorway. Usually he made it to the couch before he passed out.

Max was laughing at the story until Alec cleared his throat and looked at his watch bringing Max back to reality. "Um, Cin, can we talk privately for a sec."

"Sure boo." She turned to Amber, "Baby doll, why don't you go and get comfortable in my room. I'll be in in a minute." She patted the blond on the bottom as she planted a kiss on Cindy's cheek and she headed off to the bedroom.

"I need a favor." Max said.

"I knew that was coming. What's up, boo?"

"I kinda need you to patch Alec up while I go pick up a friend from the airport."

Cindy looked over at Alec again. "Boy looks fine to me." She lowered her voice, "Damn fine." Alec smiled. He loved transgenic hearing. "What kind of 'patching up' does he need?"

"He has a tiny little bullet that needs dug out." Max said innocently.

Cindy looked at Alec warily. "And just where is this tiny bullet?"

"Low on his back?" Max said uncertainly.

"How low?" Cindy asked starting to get a feeling for what Max was asking.

"Pretty low."

Cindy walked over, grabbed Alec by the arms and turned him around. She looked down as saw his blood-soaked jeans. "Mami, that's not his back that's his ass! And ain't no way Original Cindy is going there."

"Please! I really have to go right now!"

Cindy rolled her eyes and looked up at Alec "And just how the hell did you get shot in the ass anyway?" before he could answer she turned on Max. "And what the hell are you doing looking for trouble anyway. I thought the whole point of getting a quiet office job was to stay outta trouble!"

Max looked down and mumbled something Cindy couldn't make out.

"What was that?" Cindy asked.

"Turns out my new boss is an X-series too." Max said louder. "And more of a trouble magnet than Krit."

Cindy's mouth dropped. "Nobody can get into more trouble than Krit. That boy had so many people after him, I thought he was going to have to get a sex change to ever get any peace."

"I know. I thought he was the master. Then," she gestured to her wounded companion, "Enter Alec."

Cindy sighed.

Max smiled. She knew Cindy would come through. "The first-aid kit is in the bathroom. And we're out of anesthetic, so your revenge can be watching him squirm under the knife." Max smiled evilly.

"You better not enjoy this!" Original Cindy gave Alec an evil look before heading off to the bathroom to get the kit. "You're lucky I like Max so much." She called over her shoulder. "Original Cindy is not down with lookin' at a man's _ naked_ ass…" Her mumbled words trailed off as she disappeared into the bathroom.

Alec masked his smirk and looked at Max. "No anesthetic? Come on, Maxie, you gotta give me something."

"There's vodka in the freezer." She shrugged and picked up the keys to her Ninja.

"How much?"

"Half a bottle."

"What the hell is only half a bottle gonna do for me?" Alec whined.

"Sorry, pal. Shoulda kept your ass out of that bullet's way." She smiled. "Now how am I supposed to recognize this Axel guy?"

"He looks like an X-5." Alec said simply.

"Could you be a little more specific?" She asked as she rubbed her temples. Why did he have to be so difficult all the time?

"Blonde hair, green eyes, good-looking, soldier's posture, cat-like grace, tan, smart-assed look on his face… Trust me, you won't have to find him, he'll find you."

"What do you mean 'he'll find me'? He's expecting you to pick him up."

Alec smirked. "Trust me."

Max gave him her 'I'm not in the mood for your bullshit' look.

Alec shrugged. "That's how we're in this mess in the first place. Remember? Axel has a thing for beautiful women. Can't help himself. He'll be hitting on you within two minutes of getting off the plane."

"Ooooh. Lucky me. What is it with X-5 males? Did they put extra testosterone in your cocktails?"

"No, just extra sex appeal."

"Cocky Asshole." She muttered as she punched him on the shoulder and walked out.

"And you love every minute of it." He said confidently.

Without looking back, she gave him the finger over her shoulder as the door closed behind her.

* * *

Axel was beat. He had been looking over his shoulder for two days. And unlike Biggs, Axel required a decent nights sleep _ every_ night. He had tried to sleep during the flight, but there was a little kid kicking his chair for the entire five hours. Axel had turned around to tell her to stop, but when he looked into her little blue eyes, he couldn't bring himself to do it. She was too pretty, too innocent, too little, to have any sort of disappointment in her life. Even something as small as being refused an opportunity to kick his chair for five hours.

That had always been Axel's problem. He looked at women and all he wanted to do was make them happy. Old, young, short, tall…he didn't care. If he could make a woman smile, he was happy. Unfortunately, he loved _ all_ women. Even when he was head-over-heels for one, he still couldn't help looking around at the others…

He passed a bar on the way from the gate and into the main terminal. He slowed down at the temptation of a quick drink to fortify himself for whatever penance Alec had planned for him, but he picked up his pace realizing that showing up drunk would only piss Alec off more.

* * *

Max parked her bike in the parking garage and headed into the main terminal of the airport. She had no idea how she was going to find this Axel character. Based on Alec's stupid description, she should probably be expecting an obnoxious, lame-assed pick-up artist who was used to women melting at his smile. So she should probably be on the lookout for the cheesiest looking guy in the place.

* * *

Axel was standing at baggage claim. He hadn't actually checked any bags, but he didn't want to draw any attention to himself, so he followed the rest of the passengers. He could blend well. Of course, so could Alec. So it would be interesting to see who would find the other first.

He saw a little old lady struggling with a large flowered bag and he reached over and pulled it from the luggage carousel for her.

"Oh! Thank you, sweetie! I just had my hip replaced last year and…"

Axel tuned her out as she droned on and on with her thanks. He didn't mind helping, but he didn't mean for it to encourage ol' grannie to fawn all over him. As he pretended to pay attention to the dissertation of her various ailments he scanned the crowd. His gaze fell upon a beautiful Brunette standing a few feet away.

She was gorgeous! Big beautiful eyes, a lush pouty mouth, a pair of nice plumphe shook himself out of his mental checklist. He didn't have time for this. The girl looked at him and then at the old lady and then back at him. He smiled at her. She half-heartedly returned the smile before going back to scanning the crowd. _ She's probably here to pick up her boyfriend!_ Axel chastised himself for getting distracted. Alec was going to be here any minute and if he caught him talking to some pretty girl, he'd really kill him!

To distract himself, he offered to help the old lady out to the curb with her luggage. She was planning to take a cab and it was only a few feet out of his way.

He not only helped her outside, he helped her into a cab. He waved as she drove away. He turned to head back inside only to see the brunette girl also outside still scanning the crowd.

Max swept the crowd outside the Arrivals coming up with nothing. She checked her watch. This Axel character must be unreliable as well as stupid...She couldn't shake the thought. How dumb can a guy be, and an X5 at that, to think he could get away with screwing the President's daughter? And pinning it on Alec? Well, _ that_ she found funny. That it led to him almost being killed was a pill, but hey, the life of a transgenic is never simple. And what fun would that be anyway.

She noticed the good looking guy from the baggage claim standing near the curb. His grandmother looked so pleased with him, and his genuine smile sent a pang of sadness through her. Max wished she had a family like that. People to look after and share with, love and care for.

Shaking herself, she continued to check out the faces of the people swarming around her. And out of the corner of her eye she saw the man smile at her.

He tried to resist, he really did, but she was just too pretty.

"Hi." He said simply.

She looked at him in surprise. "Hi." She said back and went back to looking around.

"Looking for someone?" He asked.

"No, I'm exercising." She replied sarcastically.

He laughed. "Right. Stupid question. Sorry, I've had a long day."

"Sounds rough." She said brusquely and walked away.

He hurried after her. "Wait! I could help you look." He offered.

She sighed. _ Another idiot who can't take a hint._ "Thanks, but I don't need help. Nice to meet you though." She headed off again.

He was not deterred. "Aww, come on. Look, I'm new in town and my ride isn't here yet. Just let me keep you company for a few minutes."

"Whatever." She said not slowing her pace.

He kept up with her easily. "So, picking up your boyfriend?"

"No."

"Mother?"

"No."

"Sister?"

"No."

"Brother?"

She turned to face him. "Jesus! If you must know, I'm looking for my friend's" she paused and tried find the right word. "—brother."

"Oh. So what's he look like?" Axel asked.

"Um. I don't really know." she did a double take at a guy that _ could_ be an X, but his eyes were brown. Alec had said green.

"That's helpful. How are you supposed to find him?"

"Good question." She said as she strained her neck and continued to mentally catalogue every person in the crowd who could possibly be a X-series.

"What's his name?"

"Uh, I'm not sure." Max said truthfully. She assumed he would be traveling under an alias considering that he was supposed to be laying low.

"Wow. You're really organized." He commented.

She looked at him, about to bitch at him for how little help it was to criticize her when he didn't even know her, when she caught his smirk. She smiled.

He saw her smiling at him and mentally patted himself on the back. _ It only took five minutes to melt this ice queen_. _ Damn I'm good. _ "Since you can't tell me _ his_ name, can you tell me yours?"

Max struggled not to roll her eyes at that lame-assed comment. She moved closer and leaned in towards him. Her voice low, she said, "I'm Max."

He inhaled and caught the distinct essence of strawberries and honey. He answered her back in a voice several octaves lower than he intended. "Alec. Alec McDowell."

Before Axel knew what was happening, he was spun around, his legs were swept out from under him, and he was flat on his stomach with his arms behind his back and her knee dangerously close to his balls as she straddled his left leg.

"Don't you mean Axel Douglas?" she said through clenched teeth.

"Oh shit! Look, I didn't mean to. I mean, I couldn't help myself. You know how pretty she is. I wasn't thinking. How was I supposed to know she was engaged to the senator? It's nothing I need to be killed over. I swear, if you just talk to my brother, he'll handle everything. Apologies will be made, money can be exchanged…" Axel was rambling. He knew it. But however this girl was holding him, he couldn't break away from it. He needed more time. "You don't want to do this. A pretty girl like you. You don't want to kill me. So how about you just let me go and I'll disappear and we can pretend this never happened?" _ Where the hell is Alec?_

"Sorry, pretty boy. No can do. My boss asked me to deliver you to him, and what the boss wants, he gets." Max smiled. "He was right. He said you'd find me." She leaned down closer to his ear. He could feel her breath on his face. "Now, I've got two men with guns trained on you as we speak. So don't try anything. And they're transgenics, too, so don't think you can outrun them or anything." She was really enjoying herself. It was fun playing a player.

"Yes ma'am." He said.

"Now get up and come along easily." She said as she stood up and released him.

He got up and adjusted his shirt. He looked her up and down in disbelief as he picked up his small carry-on bag. "After you." He said with mock-chivalry.

"Thanks." She said walking toward the parking garage. He followed along silently.

"_Dead man walking"_, he mumbled to himself.

Max stifled her smile as she offered a silent prayer thanking whoever gave her the enhanced hearing that allowed her to hear that last comment.

TBC

Chapter 11


	11. Chapter 11

**  
Chapter 11**

_**Previously: **_

_The General whipped his head around and stared. "Are you trying to tell me that Private Thompson tried to take advantage of you, Major?"_

* * *

At the General's question, Syl looked around wildly. Their little procession had drawn quite a crowd and the last thing she wanted was to continue this conversation in public.

"No Sir! And may I suggest we continue this in private, Sir?"

The General nodded curtly. Syl watched as the MPs led Zack to the brig before hurrying after General Novak to his private quarters.

"Alright Major. Now will you tell me what the hell was going on between you and Private Thompson?" His voice was steel and Syl wondered if there was much point saying anything in her defence. From the sound of it, he'd already made up his mind about the situation.

"Private Thompson and I were practicing self-defence moves, Sir." What else could she say? That Zack was her 'brother' and he'd been hitting on her? Fuck, that sounded incestuous! That Zack had been hitting on her, full stop? Not quite. It might get _her_ off the hook, but Zack would be in hot water. Damn Zack for getting them into this mess!

Novak cocked an eyebrow at her, obviously not buying her story. "I see. And that involves straddling a fellow soldier and grabbing him by the balls then, does it?"

But Syl pressed on anyway, what else did she have to lose? "Sir, it's a well known fact that applying pressure to the balls, in just the right way, is a highly respected method of self-defence." Syl fought to keep a straight face.

Novak's mouth twitched and his lip curled in one corner. Syl bit down on the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. The last thing she needed was to piss him off even more.

"Would you care to demonstrate on me, Major? Impress me with your prowess?"

Syl's mouth dropped open and scraped the floor. He couldn't be serious, could he? No fucking way! She moved to beat a hasty retreat only to remember she was in the General's private quarters and that the doors were guarded by MPs. Shit!

General Novak threw his head back and roared with laughter, very amused by the proceedings.

"Major! I wouldn't seriously entertain such an affront to your dignity! But please, don't play me for a fool. Now let me ask you again. What was that display all about?"

Syl looked down at the floor, a deep blush staining her cheeks. All her efforts at hiding her true identity were for nought. She was facing dishonorable discharge or at the very least a significant drop in rank. She took a deep breath and raised her eyes to meet the General's gaze.

"I'm a transgenic, Sir, as is Private Thompson. We were just horsing around...though we may have gotten carried away, Sir." Syl's eyes darted around the room before coming back to her superior. With an inbred need to show Zack some respect, she added, "Private Thompson was actually my Commanding Officer when I was younger."

Novak smiled widely. "Now was that so hard to say, Major?"

Syl looked at him in confusion. "Sir?"

"Major Fowler, I'm surprised that someone with your background and training has never looked at her own personnel records. It's all there in black and white. I've known you were transgenic since you were stationed at this base." He looked her squarely in the eye before continuing. "I always make a habit of checking up on my best officers. A certain Colonel Donald Lydecker vouched for you." Still smiling he added, "And for Private Thompson as well."

Syl was shell-shocked. "Lydecker?" she squeaked out, oblivious to the ridiculous look on her face. General Novak was clearly enjoying himself.

"Yes, Don and I go way back. He got wind that we had a transgenic forge her way into our ranks and let me in on it. It's the only way you kept your ranking here. As for Thompson, if he'd taken the same route, he'd have been right up here with you."

Syl sagged to the floor in relief. She wasn't in trouble. Zack was safe. And then the hilarity of the situation hit her. Zack was doing grunt work simply because he hadn't been devious enough! She let out a small giggle. Novak sniggered and finally the two of them fell back laughing.

After a few minutes, calm and collected, Novak turned to Syl. "Major, you're a good officer. The best one under my command. I don't want to lose you. This little incident? I staged it for the benefit of the soldiers accompanying me." He reached out a hand which she took gratefully, and he pulled her to her feet.

"Shall we go free the prisoner?" he asked with a smile.

"Can I torture him a bit, Sir?" she asked grinning impishly. She might be pushing her luck, but Novak seemed a lot nicer now that they'd had this little chat. Besides, the urge to make Zack squirm was too strong to resist.

The General smirked. "I don't see why not. Oh and Major," he called to her retreating form as she opened the door. Syl turned around. "I'd like to see you and," he paused for effect, "Captain Thompson, in my office at 0800."

Syl's eyes widened at the implication and she beamed back at him.

"Yes, Sir!"

* * *

Krit worked the key in the lock but it wouldn't budge. He tried to extract it but that too posed a problem. The lock had been broken so many times that the key was useless - and stuck. In his frustration he snapped the key, leaving the end of it wedged in the keyhole.

Patting down his clothes, Krit searched for anything that might work in the lock. His 'tools of the trade' had been left hastily behind when he'd made a quick getaway from his apartment earlier that morning.

Reaching into his back pocket he pulled out a hairpin. He stared at it in confusion for a moment before his eyes lit up and a sly smile curved his lips. _ Lily._ He nodded satisfactorily to himself and inserted the pin into the lock, forcing it under the broken key. Krit let himself into the apartment silently, making sure not to wake Cindy or Max. He immediately spotted Sketchy on the couch.

"Yo Sketch, my man! Your ass is _grass_!" Sketchy opened his eyes to see Krit staring down at him, visibly angry.

"What the fuck? What do you want?" he mumbled, peering through bleary eyes at his watch. It was way to early to be yelled at.

"You stood me up! I waited outside the Blowfish for over an hour! I ended up taking Candy and Lily home alone." He cuffed Sketchy lightly and looked around the room. "Where's Max?"

Sketchy turned over and closed his eyes. Moments later he was shocked back into consciousness by a loud snort and ripples of laughter. He turned to peer over the back of the couch and saw Krit clutching his stomach, doubled over in mirth.

"What the hell?" he asked, as he climbed from the couch and approached his friend. He looked past Krit into Max's room and did a double take.

Cindy was leaning over a very naked, very male body, her face pressed close to said body's ass.

"Cindy? What the fuck! But aren't you -" Cindy cut him off.

Her voice tight she retorted. "Don' you even go there. This," she gestured to the man she was administering to, "is Max's problem. I'm just helpin' a sista out." She glanced up at Krit. "And what are _you_ doin' here?"

Alec looked up from his position on the bed to see a medium built, dark haired, dark-eyed young man who looked remarkably like Max.

Krit smirked. "Miss me, hon? 'Cuz damn, Cin, you sure look good enough to eat." His gaze raked over her towel-clad person and came back to her eyes, which were glinting dangerously.

Cindy jumped to her feet, the towel coming loose and dropping to the floor. Standing butt-naked in a room full of men who couldn't care less that she was a lesbian, she felt quite out of her depth.

"Cindy, honey? What's taking so long?" And it _would_ be her luck that Amber had to saunter in at that moment. Her eyes were wide with shock as she spotted her girlfriend standing fully bared to the appreciative gazes of three men. Cindy scrambled to gather the towel and ran from the room.

She called over her shoulder, "Krit, you fix him up. I'm throwin' in the towel on this."

Cindy paused as she heard Sketchy chuckle. "Think you already did." The other men joined in. She whipped around and snapped Sketchy upside the head with her towel before adding, "And you tell Max, me 'n her's gonna have a long chat later!" Moments later, they heard her door slam.

Krit looked down at Alec somewhat flustered. "Do I know you from somewhere?" he asked, keeping his eyes on the other man's face. The man just looked so familiar. Krit couldn't quite pinpoint why or how.

"Don't think so," he glanced up at Krit a tad embarrassed. The movement caused the hair on the back of his neck to shift. Krit caught a glimpse of Alec's barcode.

He whistled. "Fellow Manticore alum, huh? I'm Krit, Maxie's brother."

Alec nodded in acknowledgement. "Think you could help a guy out?" he said, gesturing at his wound.

Krit looked down at the bullet that Cindy hadn't had a chance to extract, lodged just beneath Alec's left butt cheek. Making conversation he asked, "How'd ya take a bullet anyhow?"

Alec shrugged. "Long story."

"Aiight. Let's patch ya up. We can talk after." Krit fumbled around the first aid kit. When he didn't find what he was looking for he pursed his lips, "No pain killers?"

Alec shook his head. "Max said there's some vodka in the freezer, but it's nowhere near enough to help."

Krit smiled broadly at Alec. "Think we can remedy that! Yo, Sketch!" he called over his shoulder to the still unsteady man. He snapped to attention. "Grab my bag, will ya?"

Sketchy crossed the room and retrieved Krit's bag from beside the door. "What do you have in here, dude? It's like a ton of bricks!"

Krit laughed. "Yeah well, after you stood me up last night the girls and I raided a local mini-mart. Think I got enough booze to last a couple days." He chuckled at Alec's reaction. The other man's eyes were sparkling in appreciation.

"Plenty to go around. No big." he smiled, cracking his gum loudly and reached out to pick up the tweezers. He handed Alec a bottle of whiskey which he took gratefully.

Krit waited for Alec to down the bottle before digging in after the bullet. The mild grunt of pain assured him that the booze was having the desired effect. He gripped the bullet tightly and pulled. Swiftly uncapping a second bottle of whiskey, he poured a liberal amount on the wound to disinfect it. Alec's loud "Fuck!" resounded in the room.

"Aw, take it like a _man_," Krit chided. He chuckled as he heard Alec mutter. "Let's see _you_ take it like a man! That hurt like fuck."

Krit picked up the needle and thread and expertly stitched the wound. He reached down to help Alec to a standing position. He dressed quickly and turned to face Krit.

Alec stretched his hand out. "Alec. So, you're Maxie's brother. You mean that like unit 'brother' or, brother brother?" He cocked his head, watching Krit carefully.

"Brother brother. We shared a test tube, a mamma, you name it. She's my annoying, holier-than-thou, pain-in-the-ass little sister."

Alec smirked. "Sounds like true love to me."

Krit grinned. "I've always thought she had a thing for me..." The two shared a smile. "Maxie always comes through. Which reminds me." Krit ducked his head out the door and called to Cindy. "Cin, think Maxie'd lend me some -"

"NO!" came the angry reply from the other room.

"Okay, okay!"

Turning to Alec he muttered. "Jeez, Women." Krit looked Alec over intently. "So what's your deal with Maxie?"

"I'm her boss." he replied noncommittally.

"Riiight. Why do I think there's more to it than that?" Krit smiled slyly. If Maxie was involved with this guy, good for her. A fellow X5 was just what she needed. But it didn't mean he couldn't play the protective big brother. "What are your intentions regarding my little sister?"

Alec cocked his head to one side and rubbed his jaw. Narrowing his eyes he replied, "Prostitution comes to mind...you want in?"

Krit grinned. He liked this guy. He clapped him on the shoulder and laughed. "Maxie sure does know how to pick 'em!"

Sketchy looked between the two men, confused. He pointed at Alec. "Who're you?"

Krit threw his hands up. "Sketchy, go back to bed, man. Things'll be clearer after you sleep it off." Sketchy shrugged and returned to the couch. He was snoring in a matter of minutes.

Alec turned to Krit. He wanted to ask about Max. There was so much he wanted to know and he wasn't getting anywhere with her as it was.

"So, tell me about Max."

Krit looked up in surprise. "I thought you guys were -"

The sound of banging on the door and yelling in the hallway made Krit freeze mid-sentence. His eyes swept the room quickly looking for an exit.

Alec looked as worried as Krit. Were they here for him again? Except the more he thought about it the less likely it was. He returned his gaze to Krit who was darting around the apartment. The knocking and yelling grew louder and more insistent.

Krit exited Max's room, guns in either hand.

"Ordinaries?" Alec asked quietly. Krit nodded and tossed him a piece.

Cindy's words from earlier that morning came back to him. _"Nobody can get into more trouble than Krit." _Like he didn't have enough trouble as it was.

Facing Krit he shook his head and smiled. "Whaddaya say we take 'em on?"

Alec flung the door open and his mouth gaped in shock.

A little old lady from down the hall was arguing loudly with two men in overalls.

She whipped around to face Alec. "Dincha hear me bangin'? Damn repairemen're here to fix the boiler!"

TBC

Chapter 12


	12. Chapter 12

**  
Chapter 12**

"Hey Krit?" Alec asked.

"Yeah?" Krit replied without taking his focus off of the video game in front of him.

"D'ya think Max'd mind if I took a shower. I hate the feel of caked blood on my ass."

Krit grunted what Alec thought was a "g'head"

"Go ahead?" Alec asked to be sure.

"Dude, you're wrecking my concentration!" Krit bitched from his position on the floor.

Alec laughed and shifted his weight to the right, relieving some of the pressure on his wound. "Man, if you need total silence in order to concentrate, you're slipping."

"I'm not slipping!" Krit protested.

"Man, I can kill a guy with one hand while hacking into a computer with the other and composing a symphony in my head."

"Dude, it totally creeps me out when you guys talk about killing." Sketchy piped up from beside Krit.

"I am NOT getting my ass kicked!" Krit argued.

Alec looked at the scores on either side of the screen and laughed out loud. This was interrupted by OC and Amber bursting out of Cindy's bedroom. She shot evil looks at every one of them.

"Oh no. No. No. No. No. Hell freakin' no! You cannot be playin' that shit in my house! Lazy ass men lying around on my floor. I want this place cleaned up," she paused in her rant to kick a beer can at Sketchy, "and I want the three of you out of here! You-" she pointed at Krit, "have your own place. Go home. You-" she shot Sketchy a death glare and put her hands on her hips, "have to work tomorrow. Get your scrawny ass home!"

She couldn't quite make eye contact with Alec without blushing, so she didn't. She gestured vaguely in his direction. "And I don't know your dealio, but when I get back, I betta not see your _ ass_ here either."

She took Amber by the hand and pulled the smiling girl out of the apartment with her. "And take your damn toys with ya!" she called over her shoulder, slamming the door behind her.

Alec cleared his throat. "Are we in trouble?"

"Nah. She's just embarrassed about earlier." Sketchy said.

Krit nodded. "Yeah. She tries to kick me out every time she walks in the room, but usually I can sleep here two or three weeks before she comes after me with a frying pan."

"A frying pan?" Alec smirked.

"Don't laugh! She may not be enhanced like us, but what she lacks in genetics, she makes up for in style."

"Whatever. I'm gonna go take that shower." Alec limped off to the bathroom.

"Don't use Maxie's vanilla shower gel!" Krit hollered after him. "She'll be able to smell it on you, and she gets _ really_ pissed. I have the scar to prove it!"

"X-5's don't scar!" Alec yelled back from the bathroom.

"Tell that to my thigh," Krit muttered as Sketchy beat him for the third time in a row. "Dammit!"

Sketchy held out his hand. "That will be 50 bucks, thank you," he smirked.

"Uh. Yeah. About that," Krit stammered.

"No. No. You pulled that shit last week."

Krit stood and looked down at Sketchy wearing his intimidating soldier face.

"Oh no! Nuh uh," Sketchy stood also and got right in Krit's face. "No IOU's, no promises, no substitutes! I want the cash and I want it now!" Sketchy said through gritted teeth.

From behind him he had heard the door open. He turned around and saw Max manhandle a tall blond man in the apartment in front of her…

* * *

Axel's POV

_"No IOU's, no promises, no substitutes! I want the cash and I want it now!"_

Axel gulped. This guy sounded like he meant business. Dammit! Where was Alec when he needed him?

Max shoved him into the apartment roughly.

Axel saw two men clearly in the middle of a disagreement. One looked a lot like Max. _Shit! This guy has to be powerful to have two transgenic bodyguards!_

He cleared his throat and tried to look tough.

"Hey Max," the boss interrupted his own rant to greet her.

"Hey," she said back. "Krit?" she said, noticing the other man for the first time. "Goddammit! What now?" she asked exasperated.

_This is not good. If she's surprised to see who is obviously her partner, and the boss was yelling at him when we walked in, chances are boss-man is pretty pissed. Doesn't bode well for my talking-my-way-out-of-trouble plan.  
_  
The dark haired man answered innocently. "What? Why does something have to be wrong? Maybe I just wanted to see you."

She rolled her eyes. "Because you're a trouble magnet, moron." She smacked him lightly on the arm. "So you might as well tell me now so I can start working on a plan." She looked at Axel as if just remembering he was there. "Have a seat." She gestured to a chair. "We'll get to you in a minute."

"Max. I swear I'm not in any trouble. I just missed you." He smiled at her and batted his eyelashes enticingly. "Besides, we have company. I'm Krit. This is Calvin Theodore, known in the underworld as Sketchy."

Axel was surprised when the man actually reached out to shake his hand. He looked at Max for confirmation before shaking his hand.

Krit frowned.

"What the hell was that? What did she tell you about me? Because let me just say, I am very diligent about washing my hands!"

Max laughed. "He was just making sure I wouldn't tackle him again."

"Tackle him? I thought bullet boy was your new boyfriend?" Krit asked flicking his gaze towards the bathroom where the shower could be heard running. "Then again, this guy looks a lot like him. You X-5?" he asked Axel.

"He's not my boyfriend! And you let him take a shower? He better not be using my stuff!" Max looked possessively at the bathroom door.

Axel looked back and forth between the two. "X5-488." Axel introduced himself.

"Damn!" the boss man interjected. "Max they just follow you home don't they?"

Axel was getting impatient. He hated waiting around for his captors to get down to it. "Look. Can we get on with this?" he said suddenly, looking at the boss.

"Get on with what?" Sketchy said.

Axel sighed. "We all know why I'm here. Can you quit beating around the bush?"

Sketchy stared at him blankly.

_Oh. This guy is good. He's playing dumb. Letting me dig my own grave.  
_  
"I tried to tell your associate here," he indicated he was talking about Max with a jerk of his thumb, "but she wouldn't listen. Look, I didn't know that Jill was engaged to the senator. I'm sorry it got out of hand. I came here to see my brother and I promise you, that if you call him, he'll make all the reparations you want. If anything happens to me, you better get scarce 'cause he won't stop 'til you're dead."

Max looked at him clearly amused.

"My brother Alec was the best of the best back at Manticore. You don't want to fuck with him."

Max burst out laughing.

"What is your problem?" Axel asked her turning in his seat to get a better look at her. That sadistic bitch thought him negotiating for his life was amusing!

Krit answered for her since she was having problems breathing. "Alec is your brother?"

"You know Alec?"

"Did I hear my name?" A familiar voice asked from behind them.

Axel turned slowly and locked eyes with the devil himself. Well, not the actual devil, but his big, bad, brother.

"You son of a bitch!" Axel smirked. He looked around at the amused faces of everyone in the room. "You set me up!"

Max had regained her ability to speak. "It was funny as hell, Alec. You should have heard him trying to tell me how you would pay anything to save his ass!" She dissolved into another fit of giggles.

Alec shrugged. "Consider it payment for services rendered. I took a bullet in the ass for you, you little shit."

"You're girlfriend likes to play rough, bro," Axel said.

Alec glanced at max and wiggled an eyebrow suggestively, "I wouldn't know…yet."

"Hey! That's my sister!" Krit defended Max's honor.

Alec smiled pulling Axel into a hug that quickly turned into a headlock, that quickly became a playful wrestling match.

They knocked Max over into Krit who rolled with her in an attempt to save the TV from toppling over. The fun was interrupted when the door was slammed open and three really big guys with three really big guns burst in.

Krit's eyes were wide.

"Goddammit Krit! You said you weren't in any trouble!" Max hissed.

Alec looked up from his position on top of Axel. "If I get shot again today, I'm gonna be so pissed!" He growled as Axel loosened his arm from around his throat, allowing him to sit up.

"Freeze!" said the front gunman. "Move one more muscle and you're dead."

"That sounds like a challenge," Axel said with a smirk.

TBC

Chapter 13


	13. Chapter 13

**  
Chapter 13**

Syl made her way from Novak's quarters, walking quietly across the enclosure, deep in thought. She was trying to think up possible ways to torture Zack for almost getting them both into trouble.

She smiled to herself, remembering the huge grin on the General's face as he informed her of Zack's promotion. Captain! Well, good for Zack. He'd been really patient, considering his cocky, I'm-all-that attitude, and Syl knew her brother deserved his new rank. It wasn't as high up the chain of command as he might like or deserve, but it was a definite improvement.

_Hmmm. What can I do to make Zackie squirm?_ she mused to herself, approaching the detention facility. The two MPs posted at the gates stepped aside to let her past, saluting smartly. Syl entered the facility and approached the warden.

"I'm here to see Private Thompson," she said curtly. The warden snapped to attention, and removed a set of keys from the wall.

"Take corridor A down to the fork, make a left and his is the first cell on the right."

Syl nodded at the man, took the keys and walked off in the direction he'd indicated.

Even from where she stood, opening the cell block door, Syl could see Zack, hunched on the lumpy cot in the dingy room. She held back a smile as she noted his scowling face and set jaw. Zack was not a man who took well to being caged. _This could be fun, _she thought as she entered the cell block.

Approaching his cell, Syl stood facing her brother. "Hello, Zack," she greeted him evenly.

Zack jumped up in surprise. "What are _you_ doing here? I thought you were in as much trouble as me."

Syl laughed. "Come on, Zack! You think I'd give up my position that easily? Sorry bro, looks like you're in a world of trouble now. And you're going to have to get yourself out of it. I told you that one day I wouldn't be able to save your ass; you really did it this time."

Zack looked at Syl incredulously. "You didn't! You didn't let them think that I - You _didn't!_"

Syl smiled tightly and tossed her head. "All I know is that you're being removed to a holding cell until the brass can make a thorough assessment of the situation." Zack kicked the bed in a fit of anger at her words. He faced his sister, eyes smoldering with rage.

_I can almost see the smoke steaming from his ears,_ Syl thought before continuing. "You're up for court martial, Zack. And Novak and some of his buddies are presiding."

Zack began pacing his cell, furiously clenching and unclenching his fists at his sides.

"You _bitch!_ You're my _sister,_ goddammit! How could you do this? After all the times I looked out for you, protected you? You've let living as an Ordinary screw with your pretty transgenic head, Syl. This is _insanity!_" The wonder, pain and anger in his voice was palpable. Syl cringed inwardly, knowing he would be pissed as hell when he found out she was playing him, but it was too good to pass up. She couldn't stop now.

"At attention, soldier!"

Zack reluctantly stilled and straightened his shoulders, his head held high, knowing they were being watched. He muttered angrily. "This is _not_ over, Syl."

She kept a blank face and motioned him towards the door. "After you," she said, pushing him out of the cell with a gun trained on his back. They made their way towards the building exit where they picked up 4 MPs.

"Take Private Thompson to a holding cell in D Barracks. Then notify General Novak of his arrival." The men nodded and marched Zack off.

Syl made her way to Novak's office. She knocked sharply.

"Enter," came the call from within.

Syl stepped into the room and smiled broadly at her grinning General.

"Major Fowler! I take it you've seen the prisoner. Have you had your fun?" he chuckled as she smiled even wider, eyes twinkling.

"I have, Sir. He's in a holding cell as we speak, under the impression that he's facing court martial. I'll bring him his new uniform shortly. I just wanted to thank you - for everything."

"It's been a pleasure. And I look forward to seeing Captain Thompson in action. I hear he was quite the soldier. Don sings his praises," he paused a moment and glanced across the room, "don't you, Don?"

Syl gasped as Lydecker stepped out of the shadows and approached her.

"I do indeed. All my kids were special. The best at what they did." Smiling at Syl he added, "If Unit 5 hadn't escaped in '09, they would have been the best soldiers Manticore ever produced - I've no doubt. But you've done well anyhow, Syl. I'm proud to call you my kids."

Syl saluted the Colonel; his very presence commanded respect, and after what he'd done for her and Zack, she figured he deserved at least that. "Thank you, Sir."

Lydecker eyed Syl with amusement. "So, what is this I hear about you playing a joke on brother Zack? I'm wondering if we might make it funnier."

"Pardon me, Sir? I'm not sure I follow," Syl's confusion was evident on her face and it earned her a laugh from both the Colonel and the General.

"Follow me. And please, call me Don," he said, smiling warmly at her.

"Certainly, Si-Don," she replied as she fell into step behind him. The General reached for a uniform before leaving the office. A brand-spanking-new Captain's uniform. _Alright, Zack!_

* * *

They entered D Barracks and Novak ushered Syl to a seat in the warden's office. "We'll wait here until Don's had his say." The two sat in companionable silence. _Deck, what are you going to do with Zack,_ she thought in amusement.

Lydecker entered the holding cell and Zack looked up, his eyes resembling a deer caught in the headlights.

"What are _you_ doing here?" he gasped, shaken at his own surprise and his inability to hide his reaction from the Colonel. He mentally berated himself for showing weakness to an Ordinary.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I'm so disappointed in you, Zack. You're off your game, soldier. I never thought one of my kids would have gotten into a mess like this." Lydecker leaned against the wall and stared hard at the man standing across from him.

"What do you want, Deck? Why are you here?" Zack's voice was hard as he glared at Lydecker, the man who'd been the bane of his existence for so long.

"Funny, that," Lydecker began. "I'm in charge of a special division of the military. Special Cases Disciplinary Director to be exact. But before we get to that, let's set something straight. I am your _superior._ You _will _treat me with the respect I deserve. _Is that understood?_"

Zack hung his head. He was in enough trouble. Pissing Lydecker off would not be in his best interests. His reply was deferential and obeisant. "Understood, Sir."

Lydecker continued his rant. "Your ass is in a shitload of trouble, Zack. Sexually assaulting an officer; a _superior _officer at that. And your 'sister'! I'm beyond words, soldier. Nothing can describe my contempt for scum such as yourself. I never thought I'd see one of my kids stoop so low." With each word he came closer to Zack, standing as tall and intimidating as he could.

Zack growled, unable to hold back his anger. "That's not what happened. There's been some misunderstanding, _Sir,_" he bit out. He wouldn't betray his sister, no matter what she'd done.

"General Novak tells me you're up for court martial. Do you have anything to say in your defense before you meet with the committee presiding over the case? It may help influence their decision," Lydecker paused before adding, "my decision."

Zack swallowed. "I was playing around with Sy-Major Fowler, Sir. I meant nothing by it. The position General Novak found us in was a - compromising - one, I admit. But in no way did I take advantage of her, Sir. Nor did I try."

Lydecker broke out a huge grin and clapped Zack on the shoulder. Zack's eyes widened in confusion and he stepped back involuntarily.

"I know you didn't, soldier! Oh, god, the look on your face was priceless!"

Lydecker turned to the guard outside of the cell and called him over. "Please tell General Novak and Major Fowler that their presence is requested." The guard nodded and left. Zack stared after him in wonder.

"Permission to speak, Sir?" Zack requested, raising his eyes to the Colonel.

"Permission granted. Oh, and Captain, you can call me Don," Lydecker grinned and chuckled at the look of utter confusion on Zack's face.

"Did you just call me -" he glanced up at the entrance to his cell to see Syl and Novak grinning widely as well. "Captain!" he let out in a strangled voice.

"Indeed, son. We've promoted you to rank of Captain. You have Don here to thank for that," Novak said, reaching out to shake Zack's hand. He took it in a daze, his eyes shifting from Deck to Novak to Syl and back again.

It dawned on him then. "You!" he sputtered at Syl. "You played me!"

Syl rushed to him and enveloped her brother in a tight hug. "Idiot! Did you actually think I'd turn you in for something you didn't do?" She pulled back to look at him, her fingers gently caressing his face. "Deck saved our asses, big brother. And General Novak," she turned to smile at her superior, "is a real piece of work."

Novak handed Zack his new uniform. "Congratulations, son. You'll make a fine Captain, I'm sure. Don assures me you were the best back under his command. I know you won't disappoint me."

Zack stood straight, his shoulders set and head facing forward. He saluted smartly to the two men. "No, Sir! Not a chance, Sir!"

Novak faced Lydecker and touched his arm. "I think we should let these two alone." Lydecker nodded his head at Zack and the two left the room.

Syl grabbed Zack's arm. "Come on, Zack! Let's get you out of those nasty fatigues and introduce Captain Thompson to his new unit. Trust me, you're gonna love it!" she said as she pulled him after her.

* * *

Zack and Syl made their way into his old barracks. Walking between the beds lining either side of the room, they practically skipped all the way to his bed at the far side. But before he had a chance to change, someone tapped him on the shoulder.

Syl stood back to watch as her brother whirled around to face Biggs.

"I heard about your stint in the brig. Way to go, soldier. Sloppy, if you ask me. Hitting on a female officer and all? Pollo loco, Zackie."

Zack's hands shot out and he gripped Biggs' upper arms, lifting him off the ground and pinning him against the wall. "Did you just call me crazy chicken?" he hissed, eyes spitting fire at his fellow X5.

"Yeah, whatcha gonna do about it, huh? You can't do _shit_ to me. I can kick your ass easy," came the cocky reply. Zack dropped Biggs when the man kicked him below the belt. He hissed air and fell to the ground. The pain was excruciating, but he ignored it as best he could and concentrated on returning as much pain as possible.

"You little shit! I'm gonna beat you to a bloody pulp!" Zack ground out as he pummeled his fists into Biggs' stomach, chest and sides.

Syl screamed at them from the sidelines. "Stop it! Right now! Get the fuck off the floor. I want you both at attention, _now!_" She barked, watching as the two scrambled to their feet, Zack trying hard to stand upright despite the pain in his groin.

"You should know better, Zack! You're a Captain now! Is this how you discipline a soldier under your command!" she yelled. She was furious with them both for acting like children. Angry that her brother was beating on the man she was falling in love with, pissed with Biggs for hurting her brother. "This is ludicrous!"

Biggs looked at Zack, his face full of fear. "Captain?" he breathed.. "You're my - no way!" his eyes shot to Syl for confirmation and she nodded grimly. "Shit!" Turning back to Zack, he lowered his eyes. "I'm sorry, Sir. It won't happen again."

"Damn right it won't," he growled back. But somehow, the lost little boy look on Biggs' face toned down his ire.

"The two of you are pathetic!" Syl ranted, as she watched Zack's eyes light up devilishly when Biggs apologized. "Zack, you're turning into Krit! Trouble. Nothing but trouble! Jealousy doesn't suit you!"

Biggs couldn't resist asking. "Jealous of what?"

Syl's face fired crimson with embarrassment. "I - he - you - That's none of your concern, soldier!" she finally managed to retort, preserving some of her dignity.

She snapped her fingers at the guards who had entered the barracks at the sound of the scuffle. "Take these two to the brig. Let them enjoy each other's disgusting company for the night!"

With that, she turned on her heel and huffed out of the room.

As the guards handcuffed Biggs and Zack, Biggs turned to his fellow X5 and asked. "What's her deal? We were just -"

"I know," Zack replied with a frown. "Apparently my sister's got the hots for you. And now that I think about it? You're not all bad."

"Your sister, huh? So, do I have brotherly approval to make my move then?" Biggs ventured.

Zack laughed and the two men shared a smile. A night in the brig might be just the thing to set the foundations for a new friendship.

TBC

Chapter 14


	14. Chapter 14

**  
Chapter 14**

Previously:

_The fun was interrupted when the door was slammed open and three really big guys with three really big guns burst in._

Krit's eyes were wide.

"Goddammit Krit! You said you weren't in any trouble!" Max hissed.

Alec looked up from his position on top of Axel. "If I get shot again today, I'm gonna be so pissed!" He growled as Axel loosened his arm from around his throat, allowing him to sit up.

"Freeze!" said the front gunman. "Move one more muscle and you're dead."

"That sounds like a challenge," Axel said with a smirk. 

_ The three gunmen parted and a very wealthy looking mobster walked in. With an air of authority he surveyed the room. _

* * *

"Hello, Krit." He looked directly into the young man's big, brown eyes. "I thought we had an arrangement."

Krit was scared, but there was no way in hell he was going to show it in front of Sketchy and a room full of X-5's. He put on his best cocky-bastard façade and said, "You thought wrong, Quezada."

"Krit!" Max hissed from her spot partially beneath him on the floor.

Alec cleared his throat. "Excuse me, do you think we could continue this conversation while sitting? This dog-pile we've got going on is getting a little uncomfortable."

"Nobody's talking to you, Blondie. Pipe down or I'll let my boys use you for target practice." Quezada replied.

"Now that's just rude. Isn't that rude, Axel?" Alec tapped out a series of commands on Axel's back while he spoke. With their enhanced hearing, Max and Krit could hear the barely perceptible taps and were ready.

"Very rude. I'm offended. Aren't you offended, Max?" Axel looked at the beautiful woman sprawled partially underneath Krit on top of Alec's legs.

"SHUT UP!" They were commanded.

"I am offended now." Max said evenly.

Axel used the distraction to pounce on the nearest gun-wielder. Krit and Alec weren't far behind, and they successfully disarmed the other two while Max threw herself on top of Sketchy, protecting him from any possible stray gunfire.

Ten seconds after Axel made his move, it was all over. The three goons were disarmed and lying face down, pinned to the floor with a transgenic knee pressed into each back, and Krit was twisting his goon's arm with one hand while using his other to point said goon's gun at the boss.

"Get your hand off my ass!" Max screeched as she struggled to get out of Sketchy's grasp.

"Whoa! Chill out, Max! I didn't mean to!" Sketchy said as he tried to stand up and only preceded to slip and accidentally grab her breast.

"You're dead!" She screamed and lunged forward only to be caught by Alec who had managed to restrain her while still pinning his goon to the ground.

"Max, he had, like, ten beers before you got here. He can't help it if he's drunk. Let it be."

Max shrugged off Alec's hand on her arm and straightened up. "Fine. But next time, I'm letting you take a bullet!" She pouted.

Krit rolled his eyes and began the show.

"Well, isn't this an interesting turn of events?" Krit asked. "Have a seat." He used the gun to indicate where he wanted his nemesis to sit.

The man was powerful, but not stupid. He slowly and gracefully stepped over the prone bodies of his underlings and took a seat in a raggedy chair.

Axel and Alec secured the three non-threats as Krit began a dramatic pace around the living room that involved flicking the safety of the gun from the 'on' position to the 'off' position over and over again as he waved it around. It was conveniently in the 'off' position every time it was pointed toward the bad guy, and 'on' every time it was pointed randomly around the room. It was a very effective technique.

"Let's fill in my associates as to what this so-called deal was." Krit said using the gun to emphasize his words. He looked over his shoulder at Max. "Maxie, I had done a little money laundering-"

Max interrupted "Jesus Krit! How many times have I-"

Krit interrupted right back, "If you would let me finish…" he paused giving her a pointed look.

She crossed her arms over her chest, but she closed her mouth, pouting silently.

"As I was saying," again with the dramatic pacing "I had done a little money laundering for him and his colleagues. But you know me, I got bored, so I told him I was out. He countered with an offer for something more exciting." He looked over at Alec and Axel, "And I am _all about exciting_, so I went to a meeting with him. Turns out 'more exciting' translates into 'transgenic hunting'. Homeboy wanted to buy a pair of transgenics for 'research purposes' and he wanted me to help kidnap them and make it look like they just took off rather than went missing."

Max, Axel and Alec all stood a little straighter as their anger started to grow.

Krit continued. "So, I got the intel, tipped the targets, gave them the money to take off for awhile, and came here to lay low. Told ya I was being good, Maxie."

Alec looked down at the Don Corleone wannabe. "Not too bright are you, gramps."

"What?"

Axel smirked. "You hired an X-series to kidnap two X-series to turn over to some monster for dissection? Smooth."

"You're a transgenic?" The scared looking bad guy asked Krit.

Max started slowly walking toward him. "We all are." She bared her teeth in a predatory growl.

Krit waved her back. She stopped. They were all enjoying the 'bad cop' routine. But wasn't one of them supposed to be the good cop?

Quezada swallowed. His fear was palpable.

Alec moved over to stand beside Krit. Krit handed over his gun to Alec and reached behind his back to pull out a very grizzly looking dagger from a sheath hidden under his jacket. He began using the tip of the blade to clean under his fingernails, very deliberately catching the sun in the flat part of the blade, accentuating the sharp sleekness of it.

"Now. I suggest that you and your buddies go home and think about your experience here today. Then I want you to spread the word that if transgenics are provoked _in any way_, we will organize and take over your businesses. And trust me, we could do it. It's what we were trained for."

Alec leaned in menacingly close to the fear-stricken man. "Don't fuck with us. It won't end pretty."

All four transgenic heads cocked to the side in unison as they heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

Alec turned on his heel pointing both guns at the three tightly bound goons while Axel moved to behind the apartment door, ready to handle any new threat. Max pushed Sketchy behind the couch.

The partially opened door was pushed open and Original Cindy walked in to find herself staring down the barrel of a gun.

"Get that shit out of my face." She ordered pushing Axel's hand away from her. OC surveyed the room taking in the scene in front of her.

"Dammit! I told you not to be bringin' this shit around here Krit!" she said to Krit as he hurriedly tried to hide his dagger from her heated gaze. She sighed heavily. "Max, I'm sorry boo, but this ain't workin' out. Yo brothers are too damn much."

"Cindy-" she began.

"Don't 'Cindy' me suga'. I tried to be patient, but this kinda' shit is startin' to interfere with me gettin' my groove on. Amber said she ain't comin' ova' anymore as long as the place is overrun with all these trouble makin' males."

"Cindy, please-"

"I love you, Boo, but I'm sick of guns and knives and," she looked back at the door hanging off its hinges, "shit being broken. If you don' wanna move out, I will."

Max felt tears start to well up in her eyes. "You're right. I'll be out by morning."

"I'm sorry." OC said sincerely. "It ain't nothing personal. You know I always got your back."

"I know. It's my fault. You're right, this isn't fair to you." Max wiped at a tear, turning her face to hide her embarrassment. When she turned back, she had controlled her features. "Come on boys, let's move out." She ordered.

Max helped Sketchy up, while Krit shoved the new guns into a bag with his video game machine. Alec and Axel hefted the goons to their feet and untied them. "Beat it." Alec ordered.

The three men filed out past OC. Quezada was dismissed too.

Max righted two fallen chairs and then picked up her jacket. "Come on guys." She paused to hug Cindy briefly on her way out, and then she led the line of boys out of the building.

"See ya, guys." Sketchy said heading off in the opposite direction. He didn't want any of Max's rage turned on him.

"Max-" Krit started.

She cut him off by grabbing him by the front of his shirt. She slammed him up against the wall. His hands closed around hers, but he didn't fight her off.

Axel moved to help him, but Alec's hand on his arm stopped him. Axel felt a bond with the fellow troublemaker, but Alec was right, it wasn't their place to interfere.

"You're my brother and I love you, but I don't like you very much right now." She slammed him against the wall a second time. "You're immature, selfish and you never think about how your actions affect others. Dammit Krit! Now neither of us have an apartment!"

Krit had the decency to look chastised, but not sad. If he had given her the puppy-dog look, she would not have been able to restrain herself from slapping the look off of his face, and he knew it.

Alec cleared his throat. "Hm. You guys can stay with me." he offered.

A smile spread across Axel's features. This was getting interesting.

Max turned to look at him without letting up on her grip on Krit. "Alec, I-"

"Seriously, Max, I have a huge place. I'm a rich executive remember?" He smiled his sexiest, most enticing smile.

Axel turned to him incredulously, "Rich? Last month I asked you for 1000, and you said you didn't have it!"

Alec raised an eyebrow at him. "I didn't have 1000 _to waste_ on a hooker for Ran's bachelor party. A party I wasn't even invited to, by the way. I have money, but I work damn hard for my money. Besides, Ran is a dick!" he turned back to Max. "Come on, you and Krit can stay with me."

Max turned back to Krit.

"Sounds good to me, Maxie. And I promise I'll be good."

She released her death grip on his shirt. "Well, I guess it's better than us sleeping in your car."

"Better than living in a car! Max! It's a penthouse!" Alec scoffed.

"Uh, Maxie. About the car…" Krit cringed at the reaction he knew was coming.

"You lost the car?" she raged. "You are killing me Krit. You are slowly killing me!" she turned to Alec. "We will stay with you temporarily, _if_ I have my own room _and_ you keep your trouble making brother away from mine."

"Hey!" Krit and Axel protested.

Alec smirked, but nodded his agreement. Max spun away from her pain-in-the-ass brother and led the charge as they all headed off to their new lodgings.

When she was out of earshot Axel whispered, "Ten bucks says she's sleeping in your room within three days."

Alec smirked and opened his mouth to reply, but caught Krit's menacing look. "Axel, I would never bet on a woman's virtue!"

"What? Don't you remember Lola or Amy or-" Axel's list was cut off by Alec elbowing him in the gut and clapping a hand over his mouth.

Alec smiled at Krit. "He's kidding. Really."

Krit stopped walking and raised a disbelieving eyebrow, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Ok, he's not exactly kidding, but I swear, Max is different."

"Damn right she is." Krit snapped.

"Really, man, she's special." he said sincerely.

"You hurt her, you're a dead man." Krit warned.

Axel snorted, then caught the death glares from both Krit and Alec. He cleared his throat. "Sorry. It's just that Alec is unbeatable. He was Manticore's #1 for the last eight years we were there."

Krit smirked. "That was _after_ the '09 escape, right?"

Axel nodded.

"Alec was the top because our brother Zack was gone." He looked at Alec. "I didn't say I'd kill you, man. But Zack has a soft spot for Max. You hurt her in any way, he'll tear your throat out before I could even warn you." He shrugged apologetically.

Alec unconsciously rubbed his throat. "No chance of that, Krit. But it's nice that you look out for her. That Logan guy was a complete ass."

Krit made a face. "Ugh! Logan. He still around?"

"Didn't you watch the 'Mole Show' yesterday?"

"Naw, I was…entertaining a young lady at that time."

Alec laughed. "Mole outed Logan as Eyes Only."

Krit busted out laughing. "Damn! I'm gonna have to get a copy of that!"

"You should've seen the look-"

"Pick up the pace, boys. I don't have all day." Max yelled from several yards ahead.

"Yes ma'am." Krit saluted her.

She threw a rock at his head. Axel caught it before it connected.

"Thanks man. Guess it's too soon to joke with her, huh?"

"Good call, Einstein."

The three men jogged to catch up with the fiery-tempered brunette. 

TBC

Chapter 15


	15. Chapter 15

**  
Chapter 15**

Alec unlocked the door and led the way inside the apartment.

"Make yourself at home, Max. You two," he started, grabbing Krit and Axel by the fronts of their shirts and pulling them aside. He held them in place as he laid down the ground rules. "No rough-housing, no wrestling, no sparring, no hookers, no skanks, no women at all, no leaving food lying around, no business deals of any kind and most importantly, no trouble!"

Axel put on his most serious face. "Sure Alec. Anything."

Alec regarded him distrustfully but released his grip on his shirt before turning to Krit.

Krit held up his hands in surrender. "Don't worry. I promised Maxie I'd behave, and I meant it."

"You'd better." Alec let him go and then followed after Max, giving her the grand tour.

"Damn, Axel, he's so serious," Krit complained. "So now that Mr. Buzz-kill put a moratorium on fun, whatcha wanna do?"

Axel smirked, "He's not so bad."

"I didn't say I didn't like the guy, I just said he killed my buzz."

"Hmmm. Speaking of buzz, I know he's got a fully stocked liquor cabinet around here somewhere."

"Ooh. I think I'm gonna like it here." Krit threw an arm around Axel and put him into a mock-headlock as they headed off toward the kitchen.

Axel retaliated by twisting out of his grasp and pinning Krit's arm behind his back. Krit got out of the hold just as easily and flipped Axel over his shoulder, leaving him flat on his back. Krit pounced and in another second the two were rolling on the ground fighting for dominance. Axel's leg shot out hitting a table leg and knocking a picture frame on the floor, shattering the glass.

"Goddammit!" Came Alec's voice from the next room.

Quickly, Krit and Axel stood up and straightened their clothing and tried to walk causally into the kitchen. "This behaving shit is even harder than I remembered."

"Yeah."

* * *

Max was standing outside on the balcony taking in the view of the city.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Alec asked, stepping away from the door to come up behind her. He laid a hand on her arm.

"Cheapass!" she teased, smiling up at him over her shoulder.

He smirked. "Seriously, you ok?"

She sighed. "Yeah. It's just a lot to wrap my head around. I mean a couple of days ago I had settled into a nice quiet point in my life and I blinked my eyes to find it all turned upside-down - again."

"Aw, come on, Max. We're not made for nice and quiet. Don't tell me that you're not feeling your best roaring through the streets on your motorcycle."

She laughed. "Can't deny that."

"Exactly. So what if your brother is a pain in the ass, at least he doesn't try to pass himself off as you."

She smiled widely as an image of Krit in one of her business suits bubbled up in her mind.

"Come on, let's go eat something, and then I'll show you to the guest room."

"Sounds good. Anything but pasta, ok?" She grimaced, thinking of Logan and his pasta dinners. _Logan! _She growled to herself just thinking of the lying bastard.

Alec noted her anger and knew immediately what she was thinking.

"No problem," he said quickly, putting an arm around her waist and steering her into the kitchen where they were confronted with the sight of Krit and Axel fanning at the smoke billowing out of the oven.

"Alec!" they said at the same time as they tried to block his view of the stove with their bodies.

Alec shook his head, closed his eyes and snorted. "Anybody feel like pizza?" he asked as he reached for the phone.

* * *

Syl groaned as the sound of her alarm blaring burst through her dream and forced her into consciousness.

She hit her alarm clock trying for the snooze button but she missed. She caught the edge of the clock with her hand, catapulting it off the night stand and onto the floor.

She heard the tell-tale clink of bits of plastic scattering across the tiles of the floor, and she groaned again knowing she had sacrificed not only another alarm clock, but also the nine more minutes the snooze feature would have granted her.

Irritated, she got up and stumbled into the kitchenette to make coffee, but where her coffee pot was supposed to be was a post-it note that read: ** Open your front door.**

_Great, just what I needed this morning, Zack being a smart-ass._

Grumbling, she padded over to the door and pulled it open to find Biggs standing on the other side holding a cup of coffee out to her.

"Oh!" she jumped in surprise, her eyes wide as she imagined how horrible she must look. Puffy face, bed hair, pillow creases in the side of her face, UGH! She resisted the urge to groan out loud.

"Good morning, Sunshine," he smirked.

"Private, what are you doing here?" she asked taking the cup from him and inhaling the hazelnut aroma wafting out of the top.

He snapped to attention. "I have new orders from my new captain, Ma'am!" he replied, saluting her.

She gestured for him to relax and enter. "And these new orders are..?"

"I am to escort you to General Lydecker's office in Seattle. There's been a new development on the Transgenic front."

"Seattle?" She rolled her eyes. _ Great, just great._ "When do we leave?"

"We are scheduled to depart at 0900 hours, Ma'am."

"Alright. Might as well make yourself comfortable," she said, ushering him into her quarters. "Oh, and Biggs?"

He shot her a questioning look. "Ma'am?"

"At ease. And stop calling me Ma'am! The name's Syl." She started walking toward the bathroom. "I'm gonna hit the shower."

"My orders specifically said to assist you with anything you needed. Need any assistance in the shower?" he grinned at her cheekily.

She smiled. "Nice try, but I think I can handle it on my own."

"I'm here if you change your mind..." he said smirking, sitting down on her couch and leaning into the soft cushions.

"Not likely." She then muttered to herself. "Damn arrogant males."

* * *

"Alec come, on! We're gonna be late!" Max called from the front entryway.

"So? I'm the boss remember? I promise not to fire you," He replied, buttoning his left cuff-link on his way down the hall.

She smiled. "Do you take anything seriously?"

"Absolutely! I take my fun very seriously." He winked. "You two miscreants leave this apartment and I'll kill you!" he called over his shoulder to Krit and Axel who were still playing video games.

"Have a good day, sweetie!" Axel called without looking up from the screen.

Max shook her head as she followed Alec out the front door. "I've got a bed feeling about this," she said, glancing over her shoulder at her brother and his new troublemaking friend.

"You're paranoid. They're harmless. They have plenty of beer, money for Chinese food, and all the latest in video entertainment. Trust me, when we get home tonight, they won't have moved from in front of the TV."

_Famous last words,_ she thought as she hurried after him.

* * *

Thud. Pop. Slap.

Thud. Pop. Slap.

Axel shot an irritated look at Krit who ignored him.

The noise had been driving him crazy. For the last 20 minutes Krit had been throwing a tennis ball at the wall. It hit the wall (thud), bounced to the floor (pop), and he caught it effortlessly in his left hand (slap).

"Dude, you're driving me crazy!" Axel snapped, abandoning his plan of subtlety.

"Well, I'm bored," came the grunting reply.

"It is not my fault the power is out. Damn brown-outs."

Thud. Pop. Slap.

"Goddammit!" Axel launched himself at Krit intent on getting his hands on that fucking ball and ramming it down his throat. Anticipating the attack, Krit rolled out of the way at the last possible second, sending Axel crashing into the TV and knocking it to the floor.

"Oh shit!" they both yelled.

"Alec's gonna kill us!" Krit moaned as he surveyed the trashed TV.

Axel shook his head slowly. "Killing us would be too good. He's gonna dismember us. Slowly."

Krit shuddered at the mental image. "And then he'll let Max have a crack at me. Oh shit, Ax, we've gotta fix this before they get home!"

TBC


	16. Chapter 16

**  
Chapter 16**

Krit feverishly scoured the Yellow Pages for a list of businesses that might have what they were looking for while Axel removed all traces of their little accident. The brown-out was still in effect and they wanted to get in and out – hopefully undetected – before the power came back and alarm systems were working again.

Finding a replacement TV for Alec should have been a simple process. But as luck had it, Alec only owned the best of the best. His entertainment system was the best money could buy – though Axel knew his friend never actually spent money on things they were more than capable of picking up for free. He highly doubted they would find what they were looking for in any of the local shops.

"Krit, man, you're wasting your time. None of the standard rules apply to an X5. Alec's system is way more sophisticated than anything these stores would carry. You gotta get creative – think bigger. Y'know what I'm sayin'?"

Krit raised questioning eyes to his new friend. "So you're talking stolen merchandise - black market?"

"Something like that, yeah. You know Seattle better than I do. Where would _you_ do your _shopping_?" Axel asked with a sly smile.

Krit pursed his lips, head cocked to one side as he thought about it. He'd lived in Seattle for a few years and knew the inner workings of the underworld as well as anyone with his connections could. Electronics and technology were things he understood well.

The Capponelli brothers had access to everyone's dreams and they were able to both ask and receive any price for the items they provided. Krit figured that the warehouse was just the place to find what they needed.

"Got it!" he exclaimed, banging his fist down on the dining room table, a triumphant grin on his face. "I've done _business_ with these guys before. I'm sure we'll find what we need…and maybe a few extra goodies too."

Axel's face lit up. "Who are these guys, where do we find them and will we be home in time for the Simpsons?"

Krit laughed. "Capponelli Imports. It's a front for the Italian mob. Trust me – they'll have everything and then some. And as for the Simpsons, if we get our asses down to 5th and Grover, we might even be back for Baywatch!"

Axel yanked Krit off his chair and dragged him towards the door. "What the hell are you waiting for then? Let's go!"

* * *

Syl pulled her hair into a loose bun. She adjusted her beret, fixed her collar and cuffs and picked up her duffel bag. She was both looking forward to and dreading the trip to Seattle . It meant time alone with Biggs – which was a good thing – but it also meant extended time on the road. Syl hated being stuck in one place and a road trip would mean hours stuck in a car on a long stretch of highway.

She stepped out of her room to find Biggs snoring softly on the couch. He looked young and innocent; his soft, dark hair fell across his face, lashes sweeping the top of his cheekbones.

_I wish I didn't have to wake him, _she thought affectionately. But as she remembered how he'd conned her into opening the door earlier that morning, the corners of her mouth turned up. Making a quick detour to her kitchenette, she returned moments later with a cup of water.

_SPLASH!_

"What the fuck!" Biggs shot up, water droplets spraying in all directions as he whipped his head around to stare at Syl. Her laugher only served to piss him off even more. "What the hell was that for!"

"Payback's a bitch," she replied smugly.

"Payback, huh?" he growled. "What did I do to deserve payback?"

"You made me venture out in public looking like shit."

Biggs smirked. "No one told you to open the door in pajamas – mismatched pajamas – with hair that looked like rats were nesting–"

"Finish that sentence and I swear I'll reassign you to latrine duty for the next month!

He laughed. "You'd miss me too much. Seattle's awfully boring this time of year. Whatever would you do without my charming self to keep you company?"

Syl snorted derisively. "I'm sure I'd manage."

"So you wouldn't miss me," he stated, pouting prettily.

She considered the question a moment before shaking her head. "Nope."

"Then I guess you won't mind requesting someone else for the job." Biggs kept his eyes locked with Syl's while he awaited her reply.

"That won't be necessary," she said shortly, a blush staining her cheeks. _Why would I want someone else?_ "Besides, there's no time. We have to leave."

Biggs turned his head to hide his smile. He'd caught the hot flush that covered her neck and crept over her face when he suggested she remove him from duty. _Yes! She likes me!_

Skin brushed skin as he grasped her duffel in his hand. The electrical current that shot through them was unexpected, causing Syl to stumble. She found her hands pressed against a hard, muscled wall of chest. Two strong arms gripped her waist tightly, steadying her. The two transgenics stared at each other.

Biggs closed the gap between them, his face inches from hers. "Syl?" he said softly.

She nodded mutely.

Biggs leaned in, his lips hovering over hers, so close he was breathing her breath.

Syl's heart was beating hard and fast. She wanted this. Wanted him to kiss her. To feel his hands on her body. Everything was forgotten save the anticipation of his lips on hers.

Biggs raised his hand to cup her chin, his thumb stroking soft circles on her skin. "You are so beautiful," he breathed, finally brushing his lips over hers. She was like velvet; soft, seductive, alluring.

Syl sighed, her mouth opening slightly. His tongue nudged the corner of her mouth and she gladly granted him access.

Syl had been kissed before. But never had she been kissed like _that._ Hot, hungry, powerful and demanding, yet soft and gentle. One moment probing, the next caressing. She was lost in sensation. Some time after the first tentative touch they had become entangled in each other. One hand was entwined in his hair, the other holding tightly to his shoulder. His arm was around her waist, anchoring her to him, the fingers of his other hand softly stroking her neck.

He never wanted to stop kissing her. She was silk, satin, and honey. Biggs knew they had things to do and a schedule to keep, but he couldn't give a damn. He was exactly where he wanted to be. Unfortunately, rule had it that all good things come to an end.

The door banged open, shocking the two apart. Zack stood in the doorway, grinning from ear to ear.

"I hope I'm not interrupting," he said with a chuckle, enjoying the obvious discomfort of his fellow transgenics.

"Of course not," Syl replied quickly, straightening her uniform. "Dickhead," she added under her breath.

"Tut, tut, Syl. If you wanted privacy you should have locked the door." Zack picked up Syl's duffel and carried it out the door, calling over his shoulder. "General Novak is waiting. Seems he decided to drive up to Seattle with you guys." He couldn't keep the grin off his face. He knew this piece of news was the last thing his fellow X5s wanted to hear.

"Fuck," Biggs grumbled, shuffling his boots and following his Captain out to the SUV.

Syl smiled. _At least I'm not the only one disappointed by the change of plans. _

She closed the door to her quarters and locked it. Walking quickly after Biggs, she swatted him on the ass. "This is far from over, soldier," she said, eyes twinkling.

Biggs smirked and simulated a mock-salute. "Yes, _Ma'am!_"

TBC


	17. Progress Update

* * *

**Apologies**

* * *

I always swore I'd never do this - 1. never post a note instead of a chapter update and 2. never leave a story unfinished. 

Our Life is a co-authored story. My writing partner is taking an extended break and as such we will not be updating too soon. Repeated requests, though they make us happy to know you're enjoying the story, will NOT make us update any faster. Sorry!

We would greatly appreciate your understanding and ongoing patience.

Sincerely,

Shay (& Iz)


	18. DISCONTINUED

Dear Readers,

For those of you still hoping for an update, I'm sorry to disappoint but it won't be coming. RL swallowed my writing partner and I've just lost interest in the story and can't bring myself to continue it alone.

Iz and I thank you all for your encouragement and support and we both sincerely hope you enjoyed the story while it lasted.

All the best,  
Iz & Shay (Izabelevans & jracklesfan77) 


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